The Titan of Rapture
by A Mountain Sage
Summary: She ascended from the nightmare, only to be lost at sea. What was lost, is now found, and she awakens to the surface, a new world. This new world is not without troubles and young Eleanor Lamb will do what she can to make it a better place. That was, after all, what Father taught. He also taught her the value of love and friendship. She remembered.
1. Episode 0: Go!

_Two Weeks_

_Father,_

_Though you are a part of me now, I find it easier to address this to you rather than an abstraction. Writing letters to the those that will never read them sounds like something Mother might have suggested to a patient in the old days, but I suppose not all her suggestions are poison. Sinclair had several blank notebooks amongst the supplies aboard this vessel of his. Unfortunately whatever spare parts he may have stored were likely commandeered by splicers and it was damaged by the explosion. We can float, but only wait for rescue as our food and water dwindles. The girls are joyful to see the surface, but I worry._

_Mother has been a ghost, hardly speaking since we surfaced. I had thought she would be angry or try to persuade me to her cause again, but she seems only hollow now. Despite myself, I am moved to pity her._

_Yours,_

_Eleanor_

* * *

_Three Weeks_

_Father,_

_I am beginning to feel that we will not be rescued. It has been too long and our water supply is falling perilously low. What fate! To escape the Rapture nightmare only to expire awaiting rescue. Mother has remained a shadow of herself. I try to make her understand that utopia cannot exist without freedom, but a part of her died in Rapture._

_I hope we will be saved soon._

_Yours, _

_Eleanor_

* * *

_Five Weeks_

_Mother is dead. She'd been refusing food for some time, but I hadn't thought... I'm not sure how to feel, Father. You taught me to forgive, but I'm not sure she ever did. We gave her body to the ocean._

_I think I have an idea that may save me and the girls. Our food is almost gone and a passing ship will be our only chance. We need to survive until one comes across us._

_I am more thankful now for your presence than I can express,_

_Eleanor_

* * *

_Seven Weeks_

_Father,_

_The girls have enough residual ADAM left in their systems for this to work. I'm going to help the girls enter a state of hibernation, then I will join them. The ADAM will sustain our bodies until rescue comes. Then you will wake me, Father. It is our only hope. It is a desperate act, but also the only one that remains to me.  
_

_I have seen the world of the surface in your memories and I know it's not perfect. I'm ready, not just to survive it, but to make it better any way I can._

_Ever your daughter,_

_Eleanor_

* * *

We join you tonight to cover a breaking news story. A strange drifting submersible was recovered just outside Jump City Harbor. Several comatose individuals were discovered on board and have been transferred to a local hospital under the care of Dr. Ryan Lutwidge. There has been no word as to the origin of the craft, but authorities have...

When Eleanor awoke, her entire body felt extraordinarily stiff, as one might expect after over three decades asleep. On blind instinct, she began to stretch her limbs and arch her back. That was a mistake. She gasped as muscles kept still but not atrophied strained for the first time in years. Aches and the feeling of pins and needles erupted all over her body. Her eyes shot open only to be squeezed shut to the glaring brightness of the ceiling lights.

"Doctor? Doctor, the patient is awake!" In moments, she was surrounded by voices. When her eyes opened again, she was encircled by doctors and nurses trying to calm her down and stop her convulsions. When she saw the doctor directing a syringe to her IV, whose needle she was suddenly very aware of stabbing into her arm, she reacted just as one might expect a frightened and confused individual who had been the subject of genetic experimentation most of her life would react. She screamed and lashed out. Those attending her suddenly found themselves shoved by an invisible hand, shoved with so much force that they were lifted off the ground and thrown several feet through the air. Some lost consciousness, others began to scream and groan in pain, a few had the wisdom to scurry from the room as fast as they could. Eleanor had a few seconds to take stock of her surroundings. Cowering hospital personnel aside, the equipment and medical implements around her were strange, familiar but unlike anything she'd seen in Rapture. Her diving suit, freshly discarded, lay in a heap on a nearby chair. She gingerly removed the IV from her arm and reached for the suit.

That's when the universe decided to throw a curve ball.

The wall exploded. Eleanor covered her head long enough to realize she was unharmed. What scratches she had suffered were already healing thanks to her unique biology. Without another word she slipped out of the hospital bed and grabbed at her diving suit and armor.

"What's going on!?" Somebody shouted through the dust and smoky haze.

"It's on the news! Some strange girl going on a rampage across the city!" The response gave Eleanor pause. The fabric of her diving suit still clenched in her fist, she turned her head to look outside the new hole in the wall. What she saw was a shock. It was a city of light in the night darkness, unlike Rapture or anything in the memories she held inside her. The buildings were too tall, too smooth, this was not the surface her father had left behind for certain. Amongst the dazzling lights, she could see the source of the prior explosion. Not two streets away, a red haired girl was bombarding what her borrowed memories tentatively identified as a bus with some sort of green light sprining from her hands. Eleanor looked back at her diving suit and armor. People were in danger. This place was new to her, but her father had taught her well. She knew the right thing to do.

What hospital staff had not already vacated the rooms witnessed the mysterious girl, this strange girl from the sea, vanish in a flash of purple light, diving suit and all.

* * *

Robin had had better days. He thought he was off to a good start. He'd just subdued his first criminal in Jump City, so soon after striking out on his own, then an alien girl fell from the sky and started smashing things. The boy wonder's attempts to stop her had been less than successful. He looked to his left. Next, a green shapeshifting kid and a big guy in a sweatshirt with inhuman strength came out of nowhere to start helping. So much for working alone. Both crouched behind the bus beside him. The alien girl was firing off energy bolts erratically into the surrounding buildings.

"Girl's gonna wreck the whole city!" The sweatshirt guy yelled over the explosions. Robin was about the say something encouraging, when a flash of purple light cut him off. Suddenly a figure in rusty armor was standing directly in the path of the alien girl's rampage. Yet another would be hero. Was there some sort of gathering in this city Robin hadn't been told about? The girl took notice. She shouted something unintelligible and a bolt of green light fired from her bound hands. Surprisingly, the new figure leapt over the explosion a full ten feet in the air and when she came down her hands were sparking with blue electricity. Two rapid succession bolts of lightning staggered the alien, leaving her open as the armored being charged her with a hand poised, fire springing from its palm.

Or at least, she looked open. With an angry cry, the alien girl swung her bound hands and caught her opponent in the side of the head with much more force than the new fighter had anticipated.

"Ouch," Robin heard Beast Boy comment. The armored figure was sent careening through the air towards a brick wall, but vanished again in another flash of light. Robin nearly struck the new figure with a kick as it reappeared again, not two feet from him. If he had tried, he would have missed as it slumped to the ground in a heavily panting heap. From this close, it was apparent that the 'it' was a she. She had obviously not been expecting super strength. Robin peeked his head out from behind the flaming bus. The alien girl seemed to have tired herself out, sinking to her knees and panting heavily.

"Now's our chance!" He leapt out from behind the wreck and charged the vulnerable alien... Only to stop short as a great avian shadow rose from the earth to block his path, towering over the street. Robin tensed, prepared for another fight.

"Maybe... fighting isn't the answer?" The boy wonder turned about towards the quiet uncertain voice. Yet another mystery girl stood at the opposite side of the street, this one clad in a blue cloak. She shifted her gaze away awkwardly. Robin saw that the other three, Beast Boy, the bulky guy in the sweatshirt, and the armored girl, had stopped behind him, uncertain. Actually, only the first two were paying attention. The girl was fiddling with her strange round helmet distractedly, having suffered a sizable dent from the alien's blow. Robin frowned and focused on the alien again. She had attacked them only when provoked, in truth she seemed much more interested in the bindings on her arms... The bindings on her arms...

"Stand down," Robin had an idea, and he just prayed it wouldn't get him killed.

"What, you think you're the boss or something?" The man in the sweatshirt huffed.

"Just give me a chance," He took a breath and walked forward. When he closed on her, the alien girl leapt to her feet, fists raised and bolts of green light primed. Robin raised his hands in a calming gesture. "Easy, easy..."

"Gotah!" She growled and thrust the energy bolts closer to his face.

"My name is Robin, and I don't want to hurt you. I just want to help." He, very carefully, reached for a lockpick in his utility belt.

"Gotah! Gotah bu-ogna!" If possible, the girl's glowing green eyes shone more fiercely.

"Its okay," He raised the lockpick and smiled reassuringly. After a moment, the girl's eyes ceased to glow. Robin thanked his lucky stars for that as he took her bindings and worked the lockpick. In a moment, there was a solid thunk as her cuffs hit the street and she was rubbing her wrists. "There, now maybe we can be-" Then the alien girl abruptly grabbed him by the back of his neck and pulled him in for a kiss full on the lips... well, he didn't see that coming. Then, as abruptly as it began, she shoved him roughly to the ground.

"If you wish not to be destroyed, you will leave me alone!" Her eyes were glowing green again as she shot upward into the sky. He could only stare dumbly. Behind him, he heard Beast Boy turn to the other two.

"So, I'm Beast Boy, who are you?"

* * *

"Well, whoever she was, she sure knows how to leave an impression." The large metal man mused. With the alien girl gone, Raven was weighing whether or not to make her exit as well. It didn't seem clear where this impromptu team would go next.

"I...-elp...get-..." The girl in the diving suit had opened some sort of panel at the base of her helmet and was fiddling with wires, some sort of radio system damaged by the alien girl's strike. Raven, nor anybody else she suspected, could hear her voice through that helmet.

"I think _we_ made a good impression," Clearly Beast Boy, as he'd introduced himself, hadn't heard her at least. "Crazy space girl is gone, the city's saved, mission accomplished!" He turned to Robin. "Right sir?"

"Seriously, stop calling me that," Robin was unamused.

"Roger!"

"I-...-ould rea-...-elp," The girl kept fiddling, and still nobody heard. Raven wasn't sure what to do about it. Repairing electronics was not really her skill set. She returned her attention to the famous boy wonder.

"I appreciate the help," He said as he walked in the direction the alien girl had fled.

"You're going to track the alien?" Raven asked uncertainly.

"I have to find out if she's a threat," Beast Boy ran after Robin, leaving the three remaining superpowered youths in the street.

"More like find out if she'll give him another ki-," The metal man began to grumble, but the sharp squawk of an aged radio speaker interrupted him.

"IF IT WOULDN'T BE TOO MUCH TROUBLE, COULD SOMEBODY PLEASE HELP ME GET THIS THING OFF?!" The following silence was deafening. The metal man stared wide eyed at the girl in the diving suit, the source of the sudden blast of sound. She raised a hand and waved awkwardly in embarrassment.

"Um, hold on," Raven concentrated. "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!" Dark energy engulfed the rusted and dented helmet. With a metallic screech, Raven wrenched it from her head to reveal the matted black tresses of a pallid girl. She let out a breath in relief and her bright blue eyes found Raven.

"Thank you kindly, this suit is about at the end of its life, I think." She breathed and smiled gratefully. Raven noted her British accent, not clear in the loud screech earlier.

"You're welcome," The emotions Raven could sense from the girl were a bit... peculiar. There was determination, a sense of certainty about what she should do. Then there was the uncertainty, she was quite bewildered by her surroundings. Not as much as the alien girl, but Raven doubted she was local. Beneath it all was the sense of knowledge not quite her own, odd. Beast Boy ran back towards them then, looking dejected.

"You guys want to get a pizza?" The metal man's response was to do an about face and walk away. Raven shied away from the green boy..

"I shouldn't..." Her exit left the other girl looking between Raven and Beast Boy, unsure of who to follow. Eventually she graced Beast Boy with an apologetic smile and followed after Raven.

"Excuse me, uh" She jogged after the cloaked girl. "I don't believe I caught your name."

"...Raven." The girl tilted her head at the strange name. "Yours?"

"My name is Eleanor," She placed her hand over her heart to indicate herself. "I'm... new in town."

"So am I actually," Raven had just recently arrived from a different dimension herself. She hoped Eleanor wasn't expecting a guided tour.

"I see," She looked the cloaked girl up and down. "Your clothes do seem... odd. Anyway, may I ask you an odd question?"

"You can ask..." Raven gave the girl a puzzled look. "I'm not sure I'll know the answer."

"Yes, well..." Eleanor cleared her throat awkwardly. "How long has it been since 1968?" Raven blinked.

"...What?" Raven was going to contemplate the implications of the other girl's question when a massive shadow came over them, came over half the city really. Eleanor looked up first and Raven saw her eyes widen and her jaw drop in shock. When Raven looked up, she saw why. A massive starship was flying low over the city. She saw that Robin, Beast Boy, and Cyborg, as Beast Boy had started calling him, had stopped at the end of the street. They all watched as a massive spike shot down from the craft and embedded itself on an island in the bay. A titanic hologram emerged from it, an alien that looked like some sort of humanoid lizard with red eyes and uneven sharp teeth loomed over the city.

"People of Earth," It began. "We come to your planet hunting an escaped prisoner, a very dangerous prisoner. Do not interfere and we will leave your city with only minimal damage, but if you attempt to assist her, your destruction. Will. Be. Absolute." With those words, the hologram vanished. Doors along the sides of the spike opened to reveal an army of the lizard aliens.

"That's a big ship," Cyborg noted.

"And those are some scary looking aliens!" Beast Boy squirmed nervously. Eleanor frowned.

"Wait, hold a moment," She interrupted. "We are talking about extraterrestrial life forms? Beings not of this earth?"

"Uh, yeah?" Beast Boy tilted his head at her. Eleanor glanced between the other four teens, dumbfounded.

"An alien invasion... it's just," She was flustered. "You all seem to be taking this rather well."

"It happens more often than you'd think," Cyborg deadpanned.

"They told us not to interfere." Raven said to the group at large. From their position, they could see the alien forces flying towards the shore Cyborg turned to Robin.

"You're still going after her, aren't you?"

"Can we come too?!" Beast Boy immediately piped up, there were practically stars in his eyes. A half-smile came over the boy wonder's face.

"I suppose I could team up, just this once." That brought a wide grin to the green boy's face. Cyborg and Eleanor smiled, even Raven found herself looking a bit less gloomy.

"I'm new to the world," Eleanor said, uncertainly at first but with growing confidence. "But I certainly don't want to see it trampled by scaly invaders." She joined step with the rest of the group but Raven found herself lagging behind. Becoming involved with these people... It just seemed like it would lead to tragedy down the road, considering what she was.

"You in?" Robin's voice struck her from her thoughts. She turned away from them.

"I'm not really the hero type. Trust me, if you knew what I really am, you wouldn't want me around." She felt a hand on her arm and was slightly surprised to find it belonged to Eleanor.

"You've proven yourself with your actions," She looked back over her shoulder. "And they've shown both kindness and insight, wouldn't you agree?"

"Yeah, I think we know enough." Robin smiled. Despite herself, Raven smiled back.

* * *

Several minutes later, Cyborg found himself peering out of an alley with the other five teens. The lizard aliens were making a mess of the street, tearing up cars and firing explosive bolts of energy from their spears. It bothered him more than the others. Unlike the rest of the motley crew, he was a local.

"Alright," Robin said after they had pulled back into the safety of the alley. "We need to find some way to track-"

"She's near," Raven said abruptly, prompting bewildered looks from the rest of the group. She looked embarrassed. "I can sense things..."

"I'll see if I can pick up her scent!" Beast Boy transformed into a hound and began sniffing around the alleyway. Eleanor jumped and stared openly at the transformation. Cyborg realized it was her first time witnessing the weird green kid's powers, having arrived late to the prior fight.

"Yeah, the little dude does that," He told her as he began tapping at the interface in his arm.

"You must be entirely rearranging your genetic code instantaneously and reverting it without any major damage! That's amazing!" The green dog became a green boy again instantly and beamed at Eleanor.

"You think I'm amazing!?" Cyborg groaned at his enthusiasm.

"Now you done it..." He refocused on his arm. "I've got a sonic analyzer built into my arm, if she's around I'll hear it." It was just a matter of sorting through all the nonhuman heartbeats for the one not belonging to the lizard freaks... or present company for that matter. He got results quickly. "I can hear her heartbeat!"

"Things are looking up," Robin noted as he led the way down the alley.

* * *

When the team finally found the red haired alien girl, she had burned her way into a video store and was devouring sugar and popcorn at a frenzied pace... some of the candy bars still had the wrappers on them.

"Uuuh, those taste better without the wrapper," Beast Boy observed with a slightly nauseated expression. The girl froze, then whirled on them with eyes flaring and energy bolts in her hands.

'It's alright!" Robin raised his hands in a calming gesture as the team backed away from the alien. "We're friends, remember?" Instead of calming down, the alien girl advanced on them vicious as ever.

"Friends? Why? For what purpose did you free me!?" She growled.

"Just... trying to be nice." Robin said sheepishly.

"Nice? We do not have this word on my planet. Closest is 'Rutha'! Weak!"

"I'd say that says a lot about how your people view the world..." Eleanor muttered quietly. The other four teens were in agreement

"Well around here, nice means nice," Cyborg grunted and jabbed a finger at the girl. "And if you want us to keep bein' nice, you'd better tell us why the lizard king took you prisoner!" Strangely, this outburst seemed to get through to the girl. She dropped her arms and the green light faded from her eyes.

"Not prisoner," She said somberly. "I am... prize. The Gordanians deliver me to the Citadel, to live out my days as their servant." The whole team's faces took on a grimmer cast.

"And the Citadel are?" Raven asked.

"Not nice,"

"I'm not one to let someone be dragged into slavery." Eleanor stood boldly ahead of the group. Slavery, to be utterly subject to the whims of another, was something she understood better than most. "I'll not let it happen."

"It _won't _happen," Robin assured, stepping past Eleanor, closer to the alien. "Not while I have anything to say about it."

"Um, don't you mean we?" Beast Boy had a valid complaint, and everyone might have considered that, if a great explosion had not ripped through the wall at that precise moment. Everyone was thrown violently from their feet, smoke filled the room.

"Seize her!" The Gordanians had arrived, their bulky scaly forms filled the new hole in the wall. The poured through the gap. The six teens scrambled to their feet and charged without another word. Together they hit the aliens like a force of nature. Cyborg smashed his way through them with immense strength. Robin weaved through them with his bo staff striking. Raven pummeled them with telekinesis. The alien girl wielded superhuman strength and threw energy bolts with her hands. Eleanor surprised them all; flinging her opponents with telekinesis, then firing bolts of lightning and flinging fire with her hands as she leapt, punched, and kicked with inhuman strength and agility. The Gordanians dropped like flies and were forced back out into the street. At first they thought the fight would continue to rage, but suddenly their scaled enemy leapt into the sky and retreated toward the island spike. The alien girl turned to the rest of the of the teens, wearing a warily grateful expression.

"I believe your expression is 'Thanks,'"

"Happy... to help," Eleanor panted. She suspected her body had yet to recover fully from its induced suspended hibernation.

"Ah, man!" Cyborg complained, picking at the rags that had once been the sweatshirt and pants hiding his metal form, burned away by the energy bursts of the Gordanian's weapons. "My suit!"

"So? I think you look way cooler without it!" Beast Boy offered with a helpful grin. The metal man gave a skeptical look.

"Yeah, because I'm going to take fashion advice from the guy in the goofy mask,"

"Goofy?" He grabbed his masked head in dismay. "B-but my mask is cool!" He looked to the others for support. "Raven? Eleanor?" Raven shook her head at him. Eleanor only tilted her head and bit her lip.

"Well, I have seen worse I suppose..." Of course, she was thinking of the bloody, corroded and torn animal masks some splicers used to cover up their deformity. It was hard to get worse than that.

"W-what about my secret identity?" He was clearly deeply shaken by this obvious revelation.

"What secret identity? You're green." Raven said with a note of incredulity. Beast Boy sputtered for a few moments but had no answer to that logic and removed his mask to reveal a mess of hair even greener than his skin. Just then, Robin and the alien girl interrupted the little fashion critique.

"This isn't over," The boy wonder warned. "Now that we've interfered..." The alien girl jumped in.

"Trogar will strike harder, it is only a matter of-"

"Fools!" The team's gaze was drawn upwards. The massive Gordanian hologram had returned to tower over the skyline, more ill tempered than ever. "The Earth scum were warned! Insolence will be punished! Your city. Shall. Be. Destroyed." With his word, the massive ship descended closer to the city and before their eyes the largest cannon any of them had ever seen slowly deployed from its belly to aim at the city below.

"That... that is an extraordinarily powerful particle weapon, isn't it?" Eleanor forced out. Whatever memories from genius physicists she had were scrambling to quantify the amount of damage such a weapon could do to a city. It was... not nice.

"Great..." Raven sighed.

"So..." Beast Boy had his eyes glued to the ship above. "After trashing a pizza place and a perfectly good video store... Now we've managed to make a humongous space gecko angry enough to vaporize an entire town!?"

"Go team..." Cyborg deadpanned. The alien girl rounded on Robin angrily.

"All the fault is yours! I commanded you leave me alone, but you insisted on the 'being nice'!" Robin turned on her, equally enraged.

"My fault!? You blast me! You kiss me! But you never stop to mention that they have a gigantic particle weapon?!" They continued arguing loudly back and forth. As they did, Beast Boy turned on Cyborg.

"We are doomed! I can't believe I let you talk me into this!"

"Say what?!" Cyborg yelled back. As for Eleanor, she was transfixed by the cannon in the sky, her mind overwhelmed by the memories within her trying to make sense of such a monstrous weapon.

"The destructive radius after impact will be... hundreds of yards... miles?" She was muttering to herself without realizing it. Even the most brilliant and terrible minds of Rapture had not churned out terrors on this... scale. Meanwhile, Raven was rubbing her temples. The ruckus was doing no favors for her eardrums.

"QUIET!" She finally screamed. Everyone fell silent and looked to Raven in shock. The cloaked girl blanched and waved at the group awkwardly. "Hi..."

"...It doesn't matter how we got in this mess." Robin finally spoke, taking charge. "We're in it, and we will get out of it, together." The teens were jolted from their stupor and one by one they nodded in agreement to his words, smiling in approval. "Come on," Robin smiled back. "We've got a city to save!"

* * *

It was on the way to the alien ship that Eleanor finally had some time to reflect on her situation. She was still trying to make sense of this bizarre world, where alien invasions were not unheard of and people with strange powers were evidently not only accepted but celebrated as heroes. Some of them anyway, she doubted the surface was free of abuses of such abilities. On the subject of abilities, she had surprised herself earlier. When first she charged the alien girl in the street, Eleanor had tried to summon fire to her hands. Instead, lightning had arced from her fingertips. She had never had such an ability... but she knew one who had. She must have acquired more than her father's memories from his ADAM...

Whatever the issue, she just hoped her powers wouldn't act unpredictably when it really mattered. She did not want to let down or harm her impromptu companions. Of them, she was still deciding what to think. They clearly cared for others and used their abilities to defend them. In a way, she considered, that made them like Father... except with more jokes and hijinks. Robin seemed a righteous type. Beast Boy was enthusiastic if a bit bumbling. Cyborg grumbled but wouldn't back down for a moment. Raven did not wear her heart on her sleeves as much as the others, but from what Eleanor had see she was an insightful and compassionate soul beneath the gloom. Even the alien girl, who had yet to give her name, was stepping up to defend the city. Between them, they could stop the cannon from destroying the city... Maybe... Possibly. Well, if they couldn't, Eleanor's time on the surface would be depressingly brief.

* * *

Raven wrapped the team in her dark energy and brought them through the floor of the ship. It was an... odd sensation to say the least. Eleanor felt weightless, smothered, and couldn't tell whether she was hot or cold. When the darkness parted, the six teens were standing in a corridor of the Gordanian vessel.

"Ugh," Beast Boy rubbed his shoulders shaking. "That dark energy stuff gives me the-" He cut himself off as Raven's icy gaze fell on him. "Eh, I mean, it's cool!"

"As I thought," Eleanor murmured. "Bumbling is the word."

"We have to get to the firing controls," Robin lead the way down the corridor. "There isn't much time." The alien girl and Beast Boy followed close behind him but Raven lagged behind. Eleanor was not alone in noticing this. She exchanged glances with Cyborg and the duo stopped beside her.

"Mind telling us why you're always by yourself?" Cyborg asked. The cloaked girl frowned.

"You heard the kid. I don't exactly fit in." Despite himself, Cyborg quirked a smile at that. He put a hand on her shoulder.

"He's green, half of me is metal, and she's from space. The only kinda normal person here is her." He indicated Eleanor.

"And I was born on the bottom of the ocean," She supplied helpfully. They raised eyebrows at her, then Cyborg continued.

"See? You fit in just fine." With that, they hurried down the corridor to catch up with the others. They had stopped at a corner. Robin and the alien girl were talking when Beast Boy paled and pointed beyond them.

"Uh, guys? I think they know we're here!" Gordanians brandishing spears rushed down the corridor. Eleanor turned around as more lizard aliens moved in behind them.

"Everyone move!" She shouted as she vanished in a violet flash. As the other teens began to attack the enemy, she reappeared on the other side of the Gordanians. She summoned fire to her hands and leapt into the air. Battle was joined. The aliens were large and strong but they fell easily between the teen's strength. Beast Boy transformed into a green triceratops and smacked aside a pair of aliens, charging towards the bridge with the rest of the team in pursuit, picking off the stragglers. Then they arrived at the door. Cyborg punched one of the two guards so hard he flew straight into the wall and collapsed in a heap. The other fired a bolt of energy from his spear at Beast Boy, but the he returned to his humanoid form and ducked below it. The spear was suddenly wrapped in dark energy and twisted in half. The alien dropped it in time to receive a bolt of green energy to the face and a fireball to the chest, knocking it off its feet. Robin approached the door with an explosive in hand. The raised voice of the Gordanian in charge was audible through the door.

"The Earth-scum shall learn!" The entire ship began to hum with the energy buildup of the main cannon. Robin placed his charge on the door and sprang away. "It takes more than six juvenile heroes to defy the mighty lord Trogar!" With a cacophonous boom and a cloud of smoke, the door exploded into the bridge.

"We're not six heroes," Robin stepped towards the largest alien in the room. "We're one team." The Gordanians snarled and charged. Eleanor fired a bolt of lightning at the closest alien, charging and flooring it with a kick. Its partner took a swing at her. She did a back handspring away and came up with a fireball. After the alien fell, she saw that her new teammates had made short work of most of the Gordanians, but the largest of them wasn't going away so easily. Beast Boy, in the form of a kangaroo, was dealing out powerful kicks likes nobodies business until Trogar leapt at him and punched him with such force he was launched painfully into the wall across the room. Raven came to his defense, blocking the lizard's punches with hurried shields of dark energy. Three of the massive alien's punches were enough to bring her to her knees. Eleanor made her move. In a purple flash, she was beside the alien and delivered a crushing uppercut with every ounce of her considerable strength. Trogar stumbled back in time for Robin to leap in and get ahold of the alien's neck, but Trogar grabbed the boy wonder by the cape and flung him away. The teenage girl fired a flurry of fiery projectiles. The first two met their mark with agonizing screams of pain. The third was dodged and he lashed out without warning, catching Eleanor in the side and sending her into the wall. She saw stars and slumped. Before she knew it, Robin had joined her, slamming into the wall next to her.

"Robin!" Eleanor heard the alien girl shout. When her vision cleared, she saw Cyborg and the alien girl going at Trogar together. By the time she had risen shakily to her feet, they were crashing to the floor next to her. Robin rose, holding one arm.

"Can you rewire that thing into a weapon?" He was staring at Cyborg's damaged right arm.

"I can try," The metal man stood as more Gordanian's filed into the room, surrounding them. Trogar grinned down on the team in triumph.

"Get away from my friends!" It was Raven, glaring defiantly at the alien warlord. "Azarath, Metrion, ZINTHOS!" Eleanor was blown clear off her feet by the force of the psychic blast. The roof of the bridge was blown clean off and the ship shuddered as it crashed into the bay below. When she recovered, all the Gordanians were face down on the deck... or so she thought. Trogar stood shakily, heaving with rage. He stood over Raven and Beast Boy.

"No!" Before she had a chance to think, she had teleported in front of her new friends with hands crackling with lightning. She was about to let loose... When a pulse of blue energy slammed into the large alien and he slumped in a heap. Beyond him, Cyborg stood with his arm transformed into some type of cannon.

"I'm only going to say this once," He grinned. "Booyah!"

* * *

By sunrise, they had made it to a nearby island in the middle of the bay. Eleanor found herself standing with her new friends, watching her first sunrise in several decades. It was over a strange new city and her bruises were still healing, but it felt good.

"That's quite a view," Raven remarked quietly.

"I don't think I could tire of it," Eleanor sighed to herself. Much was uncertain at this point, but this felt right.

"Somebody outa build a house out here." Cyborg joined in.

"Yeah!" Beast Boy nudged Raven with an elbow. "If you like sunshine and the beach..." The cloaked girl chuckled.

"You know, you're kinda funny." Beast Boy instantly lit up.

"You think I'm funny?! Ohoho, dude! I know some jokes!" The dire look on Raven's face said that she already regretted her words.

"Please..." They heard from behind them. The alien girl had exchanged her black clothes and armor for purple clothes and much more exposed skin. Style had definitely changed since the 1960s. "I look, 'nice'?"

"I..." Robin approached her. "Still don't know your name."

"In your language, it would be 'Star'... 'Fire'." She introduced herself. The rest of the team smiled.

"Welcome to Earth, Starfire." Robin gave the formal greeting. Eleanor felt as if she could use the same, but said nothing.

"I thank you all for your bravery and help!" Starfire smiled brightly. "And I wish to ask permission to remain here, where the people are most strange, but also most... Kind." She blushed and, Eleanor realized, so did Robin. She shifted her feet awkwardly, now she felt like she was intruding.

"You don't need our permission." Raven told her.

"But if you want our friendship, you've got it." Robin added. Eleanor stepped forward.

"From what I've gathered, we could all use a few new friends."

"Yeah!" Beast Boy smiled. "And besides, we made a pretty good team." Robin looked like that was exactly what he was waiting to hear and removed four circular devices from his belt.

"I thought we might want to keep in touch." He offered them to Starfire, Raven, Eleanor, and Beast Boy. Eleanor examined hers, it would be difficult to use if she ever replaced her helmet. Perhaps she could integrate it. "So Cyborg and I designed these."

"Made them out of my own circuits." The metal man added.

"When there's trouble," The boy wonder told them. "You know who to call,"

* * *

Dr. Ryan Lutwidge was not supposed to be at the port. He was supposed to be at home, sleeping after all the exhaustion of arranging for the semi-perminant stay of over a dozen coma patients and the violent escape of the eldest. Instead he was poking around the old and strange craft that had bared the girls to shore. He had told the authorities he was there to look for any clues about the girls' condition. The true purpose to his visit? A unique chemical compound discovered in the blood work, it was amazing, it was... familiar. He recalled his grandfather's journals, much of it encoded or rambling about a 'Rapture'. But there was also description of a remarkable substance...

"Blasted rust bucket..." He growled as he searched the cabin. Unfortunately, his endeavor had proven fruitless thus far. He had already gone through what the authorities had confiscated, which was not much. He had hoped to find something they missed. Lutwidge groped under a control panel and found the answer to his prayers, a switch. When he flipped it, a panel in the floor opened up and there it was. Crates filled with hypos, both red and blue. Vials filled with more red fluid. Another held schematics for a number of devices, but a jar, tucked into a small box in the corner caught his eye. Suspended in the water within was black slug the size of his forearm, pulsing red splotches dotted its skin. Adorning the jar was a label.

"ADAM slug," Lutwidge murmured. "I have a feeling that you and I are going to change the world..."

* * *

_Six Months Later_

It was a quiet night in Jump City, that is, until the alarms started going off at the local prison. The villain known as Cinderblock had smashed his way inside despite the efforts of the guards. The massive concrete villain marched right into the central jailhouse only for a certain green shapeshifter's voice to echo through the facility.

"You know, Cinderblock, normally the bad guys break out of jail."

"And I can think six good reasons you don't want to break in." Robin leapt down to land on the ground in a crouch. "One!"

"Two!" Starfire swooped down beside him.

"Three!" Beast Boy pounced into the room as a tiger and resumed his human form.

"Four," Raven levitated to the ground.

"Five!" Cyborg landed with a loud crash as his weight cracked the concrete floor.

"Six!" Eleanor shouted the number with a smile, though none could see it behind the green porthole of her new helmet as she leapt in beside her new friends. With some help from Cyborg and Robin, her entire ensemble had been replaced with a similar but upgraded outfit. Her armored gloves, boots, and upper torso gleamed like bronze, with high tech upgrades like enhanced durability and an on board computer to boot. Even her new white body suit was made from material that could take a beating. A new outfit,a new life...

"No matter how you do the math, it all adds up to you going down." Robin threatened Cinderblock. "So, are you going to go quietly?"

And a new name.

"...or is this about to get loud?" Cyborg finished. Cinderblock roared his response, charging the team with raised fists.

"Titans, go!"

Siren, it would do. It would certainly do.

* * *

**Author's Note: There you have it, Eleanor Lamb as a founding member of the Teen Titans. Its a bit rushed but I was mostly just trying to get the idea out. I recently finished Bioshock Infinite for the first time, which got me in the mood to play the previous Bioshock games. As I finished Bioshock 2, it occurred to me that Eleanor's life in and escape from Rapture would make for a pretty good superhero origin story. A plot bunny was born. Ever have a plot bunny that sinks its teeth into your jugular and just won't let go? So I eventually thought of my favorite superhero cartoon from when I was younger. The idea is that most chapters will be fairly self contained "episodes", like the show. It will be a mix of original episodes and some converted from the show like this one was. I won't be working on this much accept as something to turn to when I hit a block on my other two fics, I just needed to get it out of my system.  
**

**Siren: It should be noted that I did not come up with this name for Eleanor. It was borrowed, with permission, from a Bioshock-Young Justice crossover by ptabs0101, and was in turn originally suggested by a reviewer to that Fic called Mister. Enigma.**

**As the pig says, that's all folks.**


	2. Episode 1: Sisters

Siren enjoyed doing her duty as a Titan. There was certainly a satisfaction, not to mention poetic justice, in putting her abilities to use for the sake of good. The down time, however, she enjoyed even more, a chance to experience the new world with friends, which was why she was currently staring at the sky, mouth agape.

"Fireworks, you say?" Brilliant splashes of color exploded across the sky above them. They had never had such things in Rapture, though she supposed they never would have worked underwater anyway. "Beautiful,"

"Yup," Cyborg walked up beside her, munching on a hot dog. "They don't have them where you're from?"

"There were things like fairs," She tore her gaze from the sky to survey the glowing Ferris wheel and festive kiosks of the pier. Standing at one of them, Beast Boy leapt in triumph and handed Raven a prize, a massive stuffed chicken. The cloaked girl was not thrilled. "But no fireworks, no. Bottom of the ocean, remember?"

"One day I'm going to ask you to explain that." He ate the last half of the hot dog in one bite and belched satisfactorily.

"Rude," Siren punched him in the shoulder playfully. She was glad to be wearing her gloves, or that might have hurt her instead of him.

"So, you gonna paint them?" He pointed at the bright flashes in the sky. That had, funnily enough, become her hobby. It was a way to take her mind off things. Robin trained, Raven meditated, Starfire explored human culture, Cyborg and Beast Boy played video games, and Siren painted.

"I suppose so," She said distractedly. "By the way, where might I get another of those?" He quirked his eyebrow at her.

"Didn't you already eat three? And the two hamburgers, and four cotton candy, and the jumbo popcorn..." Eleanor blushed in embarrassment as he listed off her meal of the past hour.

"The enhanced girl has enhanced metabolism!" This time she leapt up to smacked the back of his head. He winced and rubbed the his head, taking a step back.

"Hey! Relax! Want to go see what Raven and BB are doing?" He smiled nervously. She put her hands on her hips and eyed him just long enough to tell him he wasn't off the hook before sighing and turning toward the kiosks, where Raven was looking and probably feeling rather absurd holding the stuffed chicken.

"Sure, let's go." It was as they approached that the evening became much more eventful. Robin suddenly landed in a crouch by the kiosk, frightening several passersby.

"Titans! Trouble!"

"Wasn't Starfire on the ferris wheel with you?" Siren asked, already detaching her helmet from the back of her armor and bringing it over her head.

"That's the trouble!" He immediately did an about face and sprinted towards the end of the pier. All four immediately followed, Raven gladly discarding the giant stuffed animal. Two bright points of light chased each other across the sky. As they grew rapidly closer, they resolved into Starfire and a strange squid-like machine chasing her through the air.

"No more chasing now, please!" Starfire shouted as she sped by them. When the squid-machine came by, Siren was ready.

"Hah!" She sprung and latched onto its chassis, wrapping her long arms and legs around it. It sped after the Tamaranian, paying no heed whatsoever to the diving suit clad girl astride it. Beast Boy transformed into an alligator and snapped at the machine's tentacles. Siren found herself ducking as it smashed through a hot dog cart thrown by Raven. Fragments bounced loudly off her helmet, and she was suddenly very thankful for donning it. She raised a hand crackling with lightning. "Stop!" She shouted at the machine as she released her charge into it. Lightning crackled along its surface, the machine shuddered and came to a halt so suddenly Siren was launched forward off it. She twisted in the air and landed in a crouch. Her gaze went back to the machine, hoping to see it in a wreck. To her disappointment, not only was it still floating, the only reason it had stopped was because Cyborg had grabbed it by the tentacles.

"Don't know what you did to make this this mad, Star, but it couldn't hurt to apologize!" He grunted with the effort of holding it.

"I am sorry?" Starfire said uncertainly from behind Robin. The squid-machine was not placated. It wriggled free of Cyborg's metal grip. Siren was ready. She twisted and delivered a spinning kick to the nose of it with every ounce of her inhuman strength as it sped towards Starfire. It reeled from the blow, teetered, and fell over the side of the pier, splashing into the sea.

"...Owww" Siren held her foot. She felt that one through her metal boot.

"Sooo..." Beast Boy leaned over the railing. "Does that mean we win?" Siren opened her mouth to respond when she felt the pier shaking. Abruptly, the boards beneath her feet exploded upwards and she lost her footing. The machine flew up out of the newly opened hole and Siren landed flat on her back. Robin leapt atop it as it rose and ripped circuitry from its black dome. Even as the boy wonder landed, the machine exploded, yet another brilliant light against the firework stained sky.

"Whatever that thing was, it can't hurt you now." Robin stood confidently. Siren stood, feeling a bit embarrassed. How was she to know it had an all but impenetrable shell?

"But why did it wish to hurt me all?" Starfire sounded concerned and Eleanor was inclined to agree. She couldn't do anything about that now though, so she removed her helmet and looked up at the glowing sky.

"That will make a pretty painting, don't you think?"

* * *

By the time they had returned to the tower, Starfire had recovered her good cheer. Actually, Eleanor reflected, that was an understatement. The alien girl was positively glowing.

"Come friends! I shall thank you for my rescue by reciting the poem of gratitude! All six thousand verses!" ...Maybe there was such a thing as 'too happy'.

"I see you haven't changed a bit," And that's when everyone noticed the Tamaranian girl leaning against the couch. She looked almost like a clone of Starfire, barring the dark hair color, so Eleanor assumed she was Tamaranian. "When we were little, I was always rescuing Starfire."

"Sister!" Starfire glomped onto her sister, who presented her with a green gemstone of some kind. Siren wasn't really paying attention to the sisterly exchange, she was busy wondering how she even got in the building. Those security systems she had helped Robin and Cyborg design hadn't been just for show! Starfire then dragged her sister in front of the rest of the Titans.

"I would like to introduce my big sister," The green eyed girl began happily, but her older sibling stepped forward to do the honors herself.

"Blackfire," She smiled confidently. "And from what Starfire told me all about the Titans in her transmissions, let me guess..." Siren was dragged from her own thoughts when the dark eyed alien girl made eye contact with her. "Siren,"

"Yes," She smiled politely and a little awkwardly. She was about to offer her hand, but Blackfire's eyes had gone to a wide painting on the wall.

"Is that one of yours?" Siren didn't have to look to know what 'that' was. It was one of her early paintings after coming to the surface, the T-tower at night, a bright tower sitting in the dark bay with the city lights on the shore. Starfire had insisted on framing it.

"Yeah, an early one,"

"Not bad..." Blackfire tilted her head, considering, then turned back with a smile. "I used to do a bit of visual stuff, I could show you some pictures of a few nebula."

"You... paint?" Siren was actually stunned. For all their good qualities, most of the other Titans didn't seem to have an artistic bone in their body. This was the first time she'd met someone who shared an artistic interest. And then there was the chance to see a nebula... Now _that_ would be a painting.

"Not paint exactly, but close enough." Blackfire shrugged. "I'll show you," As Starfire's sister moved on to greet and flatter the other Titans, Siren's thoughts began to shift to more serious matters. After all, not everything was paintings and fireworks...

* * *

"Excuse me," Eleanor spoke into her communicator. It wasn't just for contacting the Titans, it also doubled as a phone. "I'm looking for someone, I was hoping you could look in your records... A woman, older, grey hair, green eyes... Brigid Tenenbaum." After several more minutes of questioning, Eleanor heaved a heavy sigh and closed her communicator. She was standing in her room, not particularly luxurious but quite comfortable. One wall was entirely covered by a book shelf stocked with the latest science publications, novels that had been unavailable to her in Rapture, and history books focusing on the decades since her escape. At the opposite wall sat her bureau, a simple ebony thing containing her clothes and other items. Scattered about the rest of the room were canvases and a half finished painting sitting on an easel. Several sentimental finished works hung from the walls: Rapture's lighthouse with the sunrise behind it, a landscape of Rapture's undersea desolation, a portrait of her father, and most recently, a portrait of Eleanor and the other Titans standing on the T-tower's island with the bridge and sunrise in the background.

"...And that makes another dead end," Eleanor walked to the one posting on her walls that was neither book nor painting. Over a simple desk was a web of scrawled notes, newspaper clippings, and other records connected to the discoverer of ADAM and creator of the Little Sisters, Brigid Tenenbaum. She tore an article off the wall and discarded it. Tenenbaum was a difficult to track and that did not surprise Eleanor. The surface officials may not know what transpired beneath the waves, but more than a few might still pursue her in those decades after the part she played in the camps during WWII.

From what Eleanor gathered so far, Tenenbaum had lived the States in the interim between her times in Rapture. A woman matching her description reappeared in the company of notable computer scientist Charles Milton Porter in 1968 on the coast of New England. From there she had a tentative trail leading to London and then Gotham in the 1980s. After that... Well, she was still trying to figure it out. She needed Tenenbaum, but after months of effort she had turned up nothing. Eleanor looked to her bureau. On it were a series of black and white photographs, little girls no more than seven years old, her sisters in spirit if not blood. She had done all she could. The hospital had done all they could. Tenenbaum was their only hope now, because when Eleanor awoke, they did not. They still slept in the slumber she had put them in...

She refused to consider the possibility that Tenenbaum was dead.

"Hey there," Eleanor nearly jumped at the voice from her door. When she whirled around, she saw Blackfire sticking her head in the door, surveying the paintings on the walls. "Nice digs, mind if I come in?" The dark haired Tamaranian opened the door fully and walked right in even as she asked.

"Um, sure." Siren muttered, still somewhat bewildered. Apparently needing no invitation, Blackfire sprawled out on Eleanor's bed and took out a small circular device.

"So, still want to see a nebula?"

* * *

Starfire was miffed. Her naturally cheerful disposition wasn't subverted easily, but nothing affects one's emotions quite like family. All of her friends adored Blackfire. She was good at video games, Starfire wasn't. She knew non-terrestrial martial arts, Starfire was more of a straightforward puncher. She could even write depressing poetry! Starfire's attempts somehow always managed to incorporate adorable kittens when they even rhymed, which wasn't often...

"Incredible..." The green eyed Tamaranian turned towards the door to Siren's room, it was ajar and a multicolored light peaked out from behind it.

"Isn't it?" She heard Blackfire's voice and her heart sank.

"Not Siren too..." She muttered to herself as she opened the door. Her sister was standing beside a hologram, a shimmering image of a blue and violet nebula. Siren was sitting on the bed, she turned to the door.

"Oh, Starfire, have you seen this?" She pointed at the hologram.

"...Is that the Ilustra nebula?" Starfire asked half heartedly. Blackfire smiled and Siren shook her head.

"No, its an image Blackfire _created_ after seeing the Ilustra nebula. I kind of wish you'd told me your people had this technology..."

"Starfire was never very good with this sort of thing," Blackfire shrugged carelessly. "She was probably embarrassed." Well, now she was. Starfire blushed at being upstaged by her sister yet again.

"Friend Siren! I was hoping we could do the 'hanging out' together. You could show me how to paint again!" She added in a smaller voice. "And this time I will not spill it on the carpet..."

"Later Starfire," Siren said distractedly. She stood and walked towards the small sphere projecting the image. "Blackfire was going to let me give this a shot."

"Oh..." Starfire sighed and left the room slumped in dejection. Somehow Blackfire's visit had not turned out at all how she imagined it might...

* * *

The following day passed much the same for Siren. Some time she spent using Blackfire's device to create a remarkable image of last night's fireworks, the rest she spent working on her own projects, namely the search for Tenenbaum. It was only in the late afternoon that she finally left her room to hang out with the other Titans in the living room. Siren sat with the others on the couch, but unlike them she was not relaxing. As good as Blackfire's distraction might have been for keeping her mind off things, she was beginning to feel a sense of desparation. Even now, using her communicator, she was chasing down leads to Tenenbaum, leads that were fast becoming less substantial. Bluntly, she was exhausting herself emotionally with little to show for the effort.

"Friends!" Starfire entered the room, cheerful as ever, her arms laden with movies and snacks. "I invite you to join me in the togetherness of a stay home movie night. I have brought popcorn and non-cotton candy. Tell me, what movie shall we view?" She smiled brightly.

"Action,"

"Comedy!"

"Scifi,"

"Horror..."

"Um, I'll watch... Whatever," Siren said vaguely. She was distracted, but she had yet to fully grasp modern film anyway. It wasn't at all like what was available in the 1950s and '60s, and her mother had not exactly approved of her wasting her time on such things as a child either. Robin, however, picked up on her distraction.

"Are you okay?" His attention brought everyone else's as well. "You look a bit... exhausted." Siren sighed and looked around at the other Titans, closing her communicator. This sort of attention was not what she wanted.

"It's nothing, just a... personal project I've been working on." Let the Rapture nightmare be finally ended by those who lived it, and then forgotten. Better the world never know it ever was. "Don't worry about it." Robin, ever the detective, didn't look satisfied with that answer but didn't pursue it. Raven looked at Siren steadily over the edge of her book but returned to her reading. They didn't share their past and private affairs eagerly either. Beast Boy lost interest and turned back to Cyborg, who frowned at Siren before Beast Boy grabbed his attention. Starfire, both flummoxed by the other Titan's differing answers and perceiving Siren's need to move on, cleared her throat.

"Ahem, perhaps a double feature?" She suggested.

"Forget the flicks, kids," The Titans turned almost as one to see Blackfire in the door with her usual sly smile... wearing Starfire's clothes. Now, Eleanor liked to think she was making progress in accustoming herself to modern fashion. Starfire's outfit, with its scandalously exposed midrif, tight top, short skirt and thigh high boots, was still more than a bit too much. It was the sort of thing never to be worn in public, _maybe_ privately for a lover. She'd gotten used to seeing her alien friend in it everyday, but that wasn't to say she was yet comfortable with it. Blackfire, like her sister, evidently had no such sentiment. "We're going out!"

"We are?" Starfire looked as shocked by Blackfire's wardrobe as by her pronouncement as her older sister walked by her to the rest of the Titans. "Where did you-? Are those my-"

"Heard about a party downtown, cool crowd, hot music." Blackfire entirely ignored her sister's befuddlement and favored the rest of the team with another of her sly confident smiles.

"Yeah!" Beast Boy was immediately excited.

"I'm in," Cyborg grinned at the prospect, enjoying parties every bit as much as his green friend.

"Why not?" Robin was more ambivalent, but smiled along. Siren withdrew from herself and sat up straight. What better way to grow accustomed to a foreign culture than immersion? Moping in the tower would bring her no closer to Tenenbaum anyway.

"Sounds fun," She smiled. It was a bit forced, and so were her words, but hopefully the others would not notice.

"...And its in a creepy rundown warehouse." Blackfire added for Raven's benefit. It had the desired effect, as the goth girl finally looked up from her book for the first time since Starfire's sister had entered the room. When they began to file out, it was only Starfire that looked glum.

* * *

Eleanor was in hell. Or at least, that's what she might have likened the eye searing flashes of light, pounding loud music she felt in her bones and the countless scandalously clad, by her standards, bodies gyrating and flailing against one another around her, to had she not lived in Rapture. Maybe not hell, but certainly a suburb.

"This is horrible!" She was nearly yelling, but could hardly hear herself over the din... Or maybe that was just because she had her hands firmly clamped over her ears. She was seriously considering putting on her helmet and disconnecting the internal speakers.

"This is fantastic!" Blackfire corrected her, before disappearing onto the dance floor. Robin, Cyborg, and Beast Boy soon joined the flailing. Raven vanished off with a pale goth boy to the side of the warehouse. Only Starfire looked as uncomfortable as Eleanor felt. What she felt right now was sensory overload and frayed nerves. She was actually trembling slightly. For several brave moments, Siren attempted to tough it out and steel herself. Eleanor couldn't do it. The dancers were startled as the girl vanished in a violet flash, though some mistook it for a trick of the strobing lights.

Eleanor rematerialized in the alleyway alongside the warehouse. She inhaled with a gasp and shakily removed her hands from her ears, letting them fall by her side. This outing had not been what she had hoped for. Eleanor sat down on the dirty concrete and leaned against the side of the building. Almost immediately, she regretted it as she felt the vibrations of the noise through the wall and her head began to ache. She leaned forward, closed her eyes and rubbed her temples with a whimper. At times such as these, Eleanor had to doubt if she would ever get used to the surface. The sudden ping of her communicator drew her attention. For a moment Siren was going to ignore it, but at the second ping she heaved a sigh. She removed it from her pocket and brought it up to her face with one hand, still massaging her temple with the other.

"Hello?"

"I hear that you have been looking for me, Eleanor Lamb." Eleanor's eyes went wide and she immediately sat bolt upright. She would remember that accent anywhere.

"Tenenbaum..." She breathed.

"Nobody has shown interest in that name in a long time... Not until several months ago." Brigid's voice was raspy, the product of all the years she had aged and Eleanor had not. Her tone was not warm, but suspicious.

"I need your help, Dr. Tenenbaum." Eleanor pleaded. She stood and began to pace down the alley. "For the girls-"

"Eleanor Lamb was sixteen in 1968," Tenenbaum spoke without pause. "Why should I believe that you are she?"

"I-" Eleanor stammered. In Rapture, Eleanor and Tenenbaum had allied with one another to restore Subject Delta and end the Rapture Family, but it had been an alliance of convenience and, on Tenenbaum's part, guilt. So focused had Eleanor been on finding the doctor that she had forgotten that. "I _am_ Eleanor, doctor, for the past few decades, I-"

"Why should I trust your word?" The scientist snapped at her. Eleanor was panicked. If she could not convince the doctor of her intentions, her sisters would pay the price. How could she convince the doctor she had not aged since escaping Rapture? How could she make her understand? The answer was surprisingly simple. A calm came over her when she realized it.

"Doctor," She began slowly. "If you had doubted me entirely, you would not have contacted me at all, would you?" Her voice gained confidence. "You would have remained underground, and let me scramble in circles."

"Humph!" The European woman seemed unimpressed. "Whether or not you are Eleanor, I know about the girls in the hospital. What concerns me is your motives for them."

"They need your help! The doctors have tried, _I_ have tried, but nothing can wake them..."

"And how do you benefit? I find it hard to believe that-"

"It's my fault!" Eleanor blurted out. She hadn't meant to and it came out in a shrill cry, but once she started she kept going. "I put us all to sleep, I tried to save us, but... I woke up, and they didn't." She was holding the communicator with both hands now. "I can't help them... But if anyone can, its you." Tenenbaum did not respond for a few moments and Eleanor was afraid she had hung up.

"...I have not dealt with such science for many decades and-" The conversation was abruptly interrupted on Siren's end when the wall of the warehouse exploded thunderously next to her as Starfire crashed through it and careened clear across the alley. Siren watched slack jawed as her alien friend smacked roughly against the opposite wall and fell into an open dumpster, her impact causing it to shut with a loud clang. "What was that?" Tenenbaum asked with surprise.

"I..." Siren began, but the sudden appearance of three purple squid-like machines, twins to the one that had assaulted Starfire the previous night. "I think we'll need to speak later, doctor." She closed the communicator and replaced it in her suit pocket. Fire crackled in her hands and she sprung forward as one of the squid-like machine grabbed the dumpster and began to fly off with it. The other Titans poured out of the hole in the wall in pursuit of the machines. A Birdarang flew from Robin's hand and sliced through two tentacles of the machine holding the dumpster, causing both to crash to the ground.

"Teen Titans, Go!" Robin and Cyborg cried simultaneously, but before anyone had a chance to move, Blackfire flew from out of the warehouse like a speeding bullet. Her eyes glowed with violet light and the light shot forth as energy bolts. In less than three seconds, all three machines were scrap on the ground. Blackfire landed lightly and surveyed the wreckage with a look of self satisfaction. Siren was stunned.

"Alright," She muttered to herself. "Color me impressed," Her own bolts of lightning had hardly scratched the things, maybe it was a matter of aiming for the underside...

"Aw yeah! Good times!" Cyborg shouted excitedly as he and the others ran to Blackfire.

"Nice shootin' tex," Beast Boy gave a thumbs up.

"Very nice," Even Raven found it in herself to offer a compliment. Eleanor might have joined them, but her mind was elsewhere and she had taken out her communicator again.

"How did you know where to hit them?" Robin asked. Blackfire shrugged carelessly.

"Lucky guess,"

"We could use luck like that!" Cyborg grinned. "Maybe you outa join the team."

"Me?" Blackfire smiled and pressed a hand to her breastbone meekly. "A Teen Titan?" Eleanor noticed Starfire pop out of the dumpster with a gasp of shock, covered in garbage, looking less than pleased about the possibility of her sister joining the team. Eleanor had other reasons to be dismayed. Tenenbaum had hung up. She was back to square one.

* * *

Eleanor spent the rest of the night trying to get back in contact with Tenenbaum. She tried calling back the number the doctor had called from but it had been disconnected. Attempting to trace its location had proven to be a colossal waste of time. So now she sat somberly in the living room on the U-shaped couch, half heartedly going through her old leads on the communicator. The room's only other occupant was Raven sitting cross legged on the opposite side of the couch, nose deep in a book, but she would glance at the other girl from time to time until at last she sighed exasperatedly and lay the book aside.

"Alright, what's bugging you?" She said flatly.

"Hmm?" Siren's blue eyes met Raven's violet ones blankly, surprised by the question.

"You've been tapping at that communicator and looking like your puppy died ever since that party." Raven spoke bluntly. "You were pretty down even before the party. It doesn't take an empath to tell something's bothering you, and I _am_ an empath."

"Oh, uh, well," Siren scratched the back of her head awkwardly, feeling put on the spot. "It's... There are just some friends I need to help... and I'm not sure I'll be able to." Raven tilted her head at the Rapturian.

"I didn't know you had friends here, outside the Titans, I mean." Most of the Titans knew by now that Eleanor was not from normal society, they didn't know where exactly and didn't pry. Starfire was unsure about normal human behavior in general, so she alone might not have figured it out, but Raven had noticed on day one.

"They're family, sort of..." Siren trailed off, unsure how much she wanted to share. Raven understood.

"You can ask us for help, you know." Raven told her gently. "We have some... Pretty remarkable people on this team."

"I know," Siren clasped her hands nervously. "I know you'd all probably be able to help me a lot... But this is really something I have to deal with myself. I..."

"I understand," Raven cut her off. "Just... Remember you're not alone, okay?" Siren was surprised by the sentimentality, coming from Raven. For her part, the goth looked a touch embarrassed and picked up her book.

"Okay, thank you Raven." Siren favored her friend with a smile, which only seemed to embarrass her further as she buried her nose in the book. Siren was actually surprised by just how much that made her feel better. Even if she did not intend to take up the offer, knowing it was there was... Nice.

"Siren! Raven!" Cyborg burst into the room looking panicked. "Some weird alien guys just took Star from the roof!" Both girls were on their feet in an instant.

"What? Why is everything going after Starfire lately?" Siren furrowed her brow.

"Where's Blackfire?" Raven asked, Starfire's sister could be a big help.

"Don't know," Cyborg was already turning back towards the door. "Robin jumped onto the ship after her and BB's waiting on the roof, come on!" Leaving her queries for later, Siren vanished from the living room and reappeared on the roof of Titan Tower. She affixed her helmet over her head and began adjusting her settings.

"Do you see them?" Raven rose through the roof like a black shadow.

"Hold on..." Amongst the improvements to her suit, Siren's helmet was equipped with a variety of sensors and scanners that allowed her see what couldn't be seen with the naked eye. Cycling through the filters, she eventually found a sort of energy trail, perhaps a form of exhaust. From there, finding the ship was child's play. "Got it! They're headed east!" And had already gone quite a distance. Raven levitated into the air, but hesitated and looked down at her friend.

"Can you teleport that far?"

"I... Doubt I could make it halfway across the bay," Siren admitted.

"...Then this might be uncomfortable, Azarath, Metrion," The sorceress's eyes turned white. "Zinthos!" Siren gasped as dark shadows engulfed her suit and yelped as she was pulled into the air.

"Woah!"

"We are in a hurry," Raven gave her a apologetic look.

"Alright, just," Siren struggled to calm her nerves. "Just don't drop me, okay?"

"Noted," With that, they were off. Beast Boy carried Cyborg behind them and Eleanor discovered that growing up underwater did not, in fact, cure one of the fear of heights.

* * *

When they caught up with the alien craft, it was because it had crashed into the mountainside on the city outskirts. Robin and Starfire were fine, having leapt from the craft prior to the crash. Siren gasped with relief when Raven finally set her down.

"I never want to do that again," She said in a rush. Raven raised an eyebrow at her.

"It wasn't that bad," Before Siren had a chance to reply, Beast Boy and Cyborg rushed past both of them.

"Robin! Starfire!" The green boy shouted as they caught up. Both the boy wonder and the red haired Tamaranian appeared to be no worse for wear. All the team turned as one towards the sound of movement in the wreckage. Two towering hulks in red metal battle armor marched through the smoke.

"Titans, get ready!" Robin hissed as he slipped into a ready stance. The other Titans followed suit. Siren elected to summon fire to her left hand and lightning to her right. The aliens stopped several feet from the Titans. One of them removed a plate of metal from the front of his armor and turned it towards them to reveal... A badge of some kind.

"In the name of the Grand Centauri Empire, you are all under arrest!" Siren blinked.

"...What?"

"Uh, you can't be the good guys," Beast Boy frowned in confusion. "We're the good guys."

"And _we_ are Centauri police," The metal clad alien grunted. The other one stepped forward and pointed at Starfire.

"The Tamaranian girl is a liar and a thief! She has committed high crimes throughout the entire Centauri system!" The idea of Starfire as a master thief seemed... Unlikely. She couldn't lie convincingly to save her life besides.

"I have never even been to the Centauri moons!" Starfire protested. Robin's eyes went to the gem around her neck. He unfastened the necklace and held it up for all to see.

"But I know someone who has," At his pronouncement, Siren looked to Raven questioningly.

"It's a Centauri moon diamond," The goth supplied. Siren blushed under her helmet.

"I... Must have been zoned out for that part."

"You've been chasing the wrong girl," Robin told the Centauri police and tossed them the diamond. Turning to Cyborg, he asked, "Where's Blackfire?"

"Uh, guys," Beast Boy pointed at a dark figure streaking across the sky. Robin placed a hand on Starfire's shoulder. Several emotions flitted across the red haired Tamaranian's face at that moment: sadness, betrayal, and anger as her eyes became searing bright emeralds.

"No, she will not!" With that she took off into the sky faster than any of them had ever seen her fly.

"Shouldn't we help... Somehow?" Beast Boy asked uncertainly.

"It's her family," Raven said with a sidelong glance at Siren. "I think she'll want to handle it herself." The Centauri police, had no such quibbles and returned to their craft. Siren would have continued to watch the aerial duel between the sisters, but her communicator began to ping. The other Titans gave her a curious look as she removed her helmet and took it out. Only one non-Titan had ever contacted her on this device...

"Um, I need to take this." She said awkwardly and turned away from the rest of the group. When she was out of earshot, she answered the call. "Dr. Tenenbaum?"

"I have been considering your words, Eleanor Lamb," Came the unmistakable accent of the doctor. "And I have come to a decision."

"Then you'll help?" She said breathlessly, not quite willing to believe her ears. "When can you get here!?"

"I believe you are Eleanor Lamb and I believe your intentions for the little ones are pure." Tenenbaum said carefully. "It will take time for me to gather my research... But I will help them."

"But when-"

"Patience, Eleanor." She interrupted the teen. "Look after the little ones. When I am ready, I will find you." With the call ended, and Eleanor Lamb felt a weight lift from her chest.

* * *

"You seem happier," Raven observed. It was just the two of them in the living room again. Raven had her book again and Siren had found herself in high enough spirits to retrieve a novel from her own collection, a romance. Eleanor lowered the book and gave a small smile.

"I think I may be able to help my family after all," She told the goth.

"That's good to hear," Raven offered a tiny smile of her own. Then she turned more somber. "Too bad Starfire's family isn't as loyal as you."

"Yeah," Siren sighed. "Little sisters look up to their older sisters, I hope I'm a better big sister than Blackfire..."

"So you have little sisters," Raven noted the slip with a note of humor.

"I, oh..." Siren shook her head in lighthearted self reproach. "Sort of..."

"And don't worry," Raven lowered her own book to the couch. "I'm sure you're a great sister." Siren just smiled at her. She laid aside her book, stood from the couch and headed for the door. Once there, she turned to Raven with a hand on her hip.

"I'm going to throw Blackfire's hologram device into the bay, care to join me?" That drew a genuine smile from the goth and she stood from the couch.

"Sure,"

* * *

**Author's Note: Hello people. I know the end of the previous chapter said that I wouldn't be updating this as often as my other fics, but after the rather positive reception, and considering that I actually enjoy writing this fic more than I thought I would, I think I'm going to stick with it for a bit.  
**

**As a minor concern, since I'm worried I didn't get it across last chapter, Eleanor does not know about the ADAM slug or anything else in the secret compartment. It was Sinclair's escape vessel after all, and he was planning on making a fortune off Rapture's technology, so he stashed a rainy day cache aboard pretty much as soon as he built it. If Eleanor had found it, she would've thrown it overboard. I may go back and make the hiding place more elaborate.  
**

**Comments and reviews are always welcomed.**


	3. Episode 2: Skin Deep

Ryan Lutwidge was an ambitious man. He had spent months harvesting ADAM from the slug and trace amounts from the regular blood work of the comatose girls. It was truly remarkable, the things it could accomplish. Much of it remained theory to him, however. He wanted more. He wanted to see what it was capable of, use it to create new enhancements, new abilities, not just blindly use what he found in the compartment. Unfortunately for him, wanting did not make it so. He lacked the equipment, he lacked the data. He was an MD at Jump City General Hospital, not a genetic researcher, though that had been a favorite topic of study back in school and his free time.

"The power to elevate a human being to untold heights," Lutwidge glumly held up a gleaming red vial, filled with ADAM. "...and not the means to use it." His knuckles went white as he tightened his grip in frustration, but he relaxed it before he risked cutting himself on broken glass. Ryan had set himself up in the cellar of his comfortable townhouse, building a makeshift lab out of anything useful he could get his hands on. Medical equipment hummed next to the furnace and an old refrigerator sheltered many of his samples. The stained concrete walls were papered with test results, newspaper articles and pages of notes written by his grandfather, the man that had been to 'Wonderland'. They had been a whole other source of vexation for Dr. Lutwidge. Grandfather's talents had not been in the medical world, but in mechanical invention and cryptography. While he did not expect the secrets of ADAM and Plasmids to be amongst his grandfather's writings, it would certainly have been easier had they not been half in some arcane code. Finding and figuring out the cypher was slow going.

Lutwidge's eyes turned to the article on his desk and he bit his lip. There was a new genetic research lab in Jump City, developing gene therapies that could raise intelligence through neural regeneration and increase muscle density amongst other things, though all relatively minor compared to ADAM. The research was controversial, but what research worth doing wasn't? And more importantly it was a state of the art operation. He had been weighing his options for hours but it seemed there was only one course of action left to him. His gaze fell to the old syringe by his hand, filled with red fluid.

"One doesn't climb down the rabbit hole," He steeled himself and his fingers curled around the syringe. "One jumps,"

* * *

_One Week Later_

The Titans were assembled in the living room for breakfast. Beast Boy was still fuming after Cyborg had pushed him out of the kitchen. Cyborg had a carnivorous diet, but Beast Boy was an animal shapeshifter. Eating animal meat felt like... Cannibalism.

"Dude!" He called to Cyborg from across the room, the metal man was licking his lips over the sizzling bacon. "You know I can't eat that!"

"How can you not like bacon?" Cyborg complained. "Who doesn't like bacon?"

"_I _don't!" The rest of the team paid them little mind. This scene played out like clockwork nearly every day during one meal or another. They had learned to tune it out. Robin, nearly as much a carnivore as Cyborg, was waiting patiently at the table conversing with Starfire, whose offers to cook a Tamaranian meal had already been shot down several times. Raven and Siren were entirely distracted by their respective books, sitting in silence. Raven was impassive as always, but Siren had a small closed lip smile and seemed to be humming quietly as she read. "Let me make tofu waffles!"

"Nobody wants tofu waffles!"

"Siren likes them!" Beast Boy declared triumphantly, turning to Siren. "You ate them, right?" The dark haired girl looked at him with startled blue eyes.

"Hm? Oh, yeah!" She smiled. Beast Boy puffed out his chest and faced Cyborg.

"Siren eats everything, it doesn't count!" Cyborg protested. Siren's face instantly became less pleasant. She frowned at the large metal man.

"Are you calling me a glutton?" Cyborg raised a hand in a calming gesture.

"I'm not sayin' that!" Far from having the desired effect, Siren stood and folded her arms with a dark expression.

"Then what _are_ you saying?" Beast Boy leapt in beside her, folding his arms in mimicry of her stance.

"Yeah Cy, what _are_ you talking about?"

"Hey, you just like that she'll eat fake meat with you!" Cyborg jabbed a metal finger at his green friend. Beast Boy jabbed a finger in return and opened his mouth to reply when the lights began to flash red and a siren started blaring. Robin had vaulted over the table and was tapping at the main computer before anyone else had reacted.

"Looks like a break in at a medical facility!" He turned to the rest of the Titans. "Teen Titans, go!"

* * *

The building was on fire. Jump City fire trucks had gathered around the ten story structure when the Titans arrived. Roaring flames leapt from some windows and tiny figures waved their arms in panicked frenzies out of other. By the updates they'd received, the fire was the had started after the robbery began. Today's villain evidently had fire powers, but now that the building was on fire they had other priorities.

"Beast Boy, Cyborg!" Robin cried out as they arrived behind the fire trucks. He surveyed the situation in moments, analyzing. "Help with the fire! Raven and Starfire, get the people out of the building!" He brought out his his bo staff and extended it. "Siren, we're going after the thief."

"Right!" The Titans responded nigh simultaneously and moved their tasks. Cyborg grabbed onto a fire hydrant and wrenched it apart, sending a jet of water into the air. Using his foot, he directed the stream at the flaming structure. Beast Boy took on the form of a large elephant and began using his new trunk to take water from the rapidly growing pond around Cyborg and spray it into the worst burning areas. Starfire flew straight into the building, crashing through a window. When she emerged she was carrying two very panicked men in white coats by the scruff of the neck. Raven followed and soon enough survivors began appearing on the street with her out of her shadows. For her part, Siren teleported.

In a violet flash, she was at once in an inferno. Fire and smoke billowed around her, she felt the searing heat even through her temperature regulated suit. Were it not for her helmet, she would have been coughing and hacking at the smoke. A sudden crash caused her to twist and look behind her. Robin landed in a crouch even as the shattered window glass showered onto the ground, his cape pressed to his mouth and nose with one hand.

Early on in the formation of the Titans, Robin had asked whether or not Siren could take passengers with her teleportation. As she was genuinely unsure, he had suggested trying it with dummies before people. That, as it turned out, was a very good idea. Four out of the five dummies had left limbs behind and Siren was reasonably sure the sole survivor had been a fluke. So Robin was left to use the old fashion method of grappling hook and window kicking.

"The thief was spotted in the main lab! Straight ahead!" The boy wonder's voice issued from her helmet's internal speakers. Siren was glad Robin was using the communicator, she wouldn't have been able to hear him over the roaring fires. As they progressed into the building, the fire became less intense and a suspicion formed in Siren's mind. The walls became less scorched and flames all but died out as they came to an untouched door. They sidled up to it, Robin on one side and Siren on the other.

"I think the fire is just a diversion!" She offered her suspicions to Robin, who nodded in agreement as he slapped a charge on the door.

"Maybe it got out of hand, he hasn't left himself a way out!" Robin shouted back. Siren had time to nod, then the charge went off. With a mighty boom the door caved in and smoke filled doorway. The Titans leapt in and scanned the room through the haze. At first the perpetrator was only a tall heavy set silhouette at the other end of the room, removing a flash drive from a console and tucking a piece of machinery under one arm.

"You, stop!" Robin cried, drawing a birdarang. Siren allowed lightning to crackle through her fingers. The figure turned towards them and became clear. He was wearing all black, some sort of body armor that left not an inch of skin exposed. His face was shrouded by something like a ski mask, the eyes hidden by red goggles. The man instantly raised a hand toward them, palm faced out. Set in the palm and underside of the fingers were circular openings filled by some sort of wire mesh, not unlike Siren's own gloves actually, but the former Little Sister was more concerned by the red glow behind the mesh, growing brighter by the moment.

"Move!" She dodged left, Robin went right, and where they had been a fireball exploded. All three combatants were already in movement. The man immediately turned tail and fled towards a door at the rear of the room. Robin let fly with his birdarang and it struck the thief's legs, sending him sprawling with an 'oomf'. Siren vanished and reappeared standing over the fallen thief. She grabbed him by the shoulder and started to pull him up, intending to toss him across the room. She never got the chance. A punch of more than human strength caught her in the stomach unawares. She fell back on the floor as all the air was forced from her lungs.

"Siren!" Robin called out as he lunged forward. The thief got to his feet in an instant and aimed his palm at the floor before the charging boy wonder. Robin came to a skidding halt and drew his cape around himself just in time. The flames exploded from the ground, the fire was in the room now, burning freely along the floor and spreading to the walls and ceiling. Wheezing in her attempts to force air into her lungs, Siren got to her knees and watched the thief, standing a black shadow against the flames. The way the firelight glinted off his red goggles lent him a demonic aspect.

"W-who are you?" She managed to force out between gasps. The thief's gaze lingered on the machinery he had been carrying, now smashed on the floor, then it turned to Siren. After considering her for a moment, a deep muffled voice issued from his covered mouth.

"Apex... my goal," He did an about face and proceeded to the door at the end of the room.

"No you don't!" Even as Siren got to her feet and was beginning to finally catch her breath, Robin leapt through the flames and let two birdarangs fly. They clattered off the far door as the man slammed it shut. A growl found its way into Siren's throat. Before she even knew what she was doing, the diving suit clad girl had teleported to the door and plowed her foot into it with enough force to cave in a man's skull.

"Get back here!" She screamed as the door rocketed open to reveal... An empty room. "What?" A small explosion rocked the room behind her, and a glance was all she needed to tell her it was time to leave. Robin, looking as frustrated as she felt, was speaking into his communicator. She caught Raven's name, but she cast her gaze around the empty room, fuming with frustration and grinding her teeth. There was no way out, so what power did this creep possess that let him escape through walls?

"Siren," All at once, her vision was black and the heat of the fire vanished. Behind her, she heard Raven speak and felt her hand on her shoulder. "Let's go."

* * *

"Come on, give me the play by play!" Beast Boy complained. The fire was not quite out but the Titans had extinguished the worst of it and gotten everyone out that hadn't already evacuated the building. When Beast Boy saw the trio of Siren, Robin and Raven, he ran over. "Who was it trying to deep fry this place anyway?"

"He got away," Siren muttered dejectedly, still trying to puzzle out the how of the matter.

"You sure? We didn't see anyone come out..." Cyborg frowned.

"I don't know how, but we'll get him." Robin raised a fist. "First we need to know what sort of data he stole." Cyborg was already on it, tapping at the computer built into his arm.

"Some sort of genetic research." He scanned the screen. Siren, who had removed her helmet and shaken out her hair, perked up and began listening intently. Her frown and furrowed brow gave the impression of either intense concentration or unpleasant remembrance. "Mental and physical enhancement of some kind... You okay?" Siren had turned away with a tired look on her face.

"What, are you 'burnt out'?" Beast Boy offered, prompting an audible groan from Cyborg and Raven, but Siren hardly heard him.

"Just... reminds me of something." She tucked her helmet under her arm and turned to face the team. "I'm... Going to head back to the tower..." And then she vanished, the first of several teleports that would bring her home. The other Titans gave Beast Boy pointed looks.

"What?"

* * *

In the basement of Ryan Lutwidge, a red mist spontaneously coalesced in the center of the room. The walls of notes and papers rustled in a phantom wind. Then the mist surged to a single point and a man was suddenly kneeling in the center of the floor, panting heavily. Ryan Lutwidge tore off his goggles and mask and forced himself to his feet. Repeated use of the teleportation plasmid had taken a much greater toll than he had anticipated, but it was worth it. With what he could currently do, he doubted he would have a chance against even one of the Titans in a drawn out fight. Future endeavors might require further enhancement. Yes, he would do that, not because he wanted it. No, whatever desire he might have for the substance was secondary to necessity... yes... necessity...

He removed the flash driver from his pocket and placed it on a table piled with equipment. He had made several trips back and forth before the Titans arrived. Even though he had been cut short, it was still quite a haul.

"It'll have to be enough," The doctor muttered to himself, his mind already moving forward into the realm of possibilities before him. Used properly, ADAM could correct genetic conditions, reduce the risk of many other conditions and perhaps even engineer immunity. Lutwidge knew this, but felt that was merely scratching the surface of what it could do. The doctor was less interested in correcting human imperfection than in transcendence of the human condition. He picked up a vial of the precious substance and held it before his eyes. The research facility was looking into minor increases of ability in the average human being. With ADAM, it could be so much more. To explore its potential, he would need more information.

"I'll need a test subject..."

* * *

_One Day Later_

Beast Boy happily munched on his tofu breakfast. This morning he'd managed to get into the kitchen before Cyborg and rubbed it in his face. Speaking of the metal man, Cyborg stirred on the couch and looked behind him at the door.

"Yo, anyone see Siren this morning?" Only Siren was missing from the living room and everyone else had either finished breakfast or was in the midst. Starfire brought a hand up to her mouth.

"Could she be ill? Perhaps we should go check on her!" Even as she spoke the compassionate Tamaranian rose into the air, intending to fly through the halls and do just that, but Robin reached up and grabbed her wrist.

"Hold on Star," He cautioned.

"She was kinda out of it after that fire yesterday," Beast Boy put in between bites. "Reminded her of something,"

"She just needs some space," Robin tugged Starfire back towards the ground and she relented. The Tamaranian looked like she was about to protest, but just at that moment the doors slid open and Siren stepped. The rest of the team watched her awkwardly as she served herself and began to eat, but she seemed too within her own thoughts to notice.

"Friend Siren!" Starfire smiled brightly. "How are you this beautiful morning?" Siren paused and stared blankly at the red haired girl for several moments before the question registered.

"Oh, I'm fine Starfire," She said distractedly and returned to her meal, which she was eating at disturbingly ravenous pace despite her inattention. Perceptive as always, Beast Boy believed he had a full proof way of raising her spirits. Grabbing a frying pan of his patented homemade tofu waffles, he leapt up beside her.

"Hey Siren! How about some of my legendary tofu waffles!" She gave him the same blank look Starfire had received.

"Thanks," The shapeshifter blinked and suddenly his waffles were gone. He gaped at the empty pan, then at her equally empty plate. Siren swallowed then dabbed at her lips with a napkin. She stood and slid past Beast Boy towards the door. "I'm going out for awhile." The she left, with most of the other Titans staring after her. Beast Boy gaped at the empty pan and then at Siren's retreating back.

"What's up with _her_?"

* * *

Tamaranians are deeply emotional creatures. Their very powers sprung from the emotions they felt and defined their lives. In Starfire's case, the emotion now was worry. Her highly compassionate nature made it impossible to discount Siren's distraction and apparent depression. However, Robin had told her to keep her distance, so she was at a loss of what to do. Surely there must be something she could do to help! And that might have been why she found herself heading to the tower entrance in order to catch Siren before she left. She got there in time. Siren was just walking towards the front doors as they opened for her. Starfire raised her hand and was about to call out when a spot of green caught her eye.

"Beast Boy?" Crouched around the corner and peaking at Siren, the shapeshifter pressed finger to his lips.

"Shhh!" He grabbed her wrist and pulled her around the corner just as Siren cast a confused glance over her shoulder. Seeing nothing, the brunette shrugged and continued to the door.

"What are you-" Starfire began.

"Shhh!" Beast Boy shushed her and she lowered her voice.

"Are you spying on Siren!?" Starfire gasped. It was a most unkind thing to do to a friend.

"No! Well, yeah..." Beast Boy spoke quietly and shrugged sheepishly. "I mean, haven't you ever wondered about Siren?"

"Wondered?" Starfire tilted her head at the green boy.

"You know!" He gesticulated wildly. "She told Cy she was from beneath the ocean but won't say anything more! Then she takes these trips into the city and doesn't say where she's going! And then-" Starfire actually did wonder about those things, but she folded her arms and gave Beast Boy a reproving look.

"Raven and Robin also do not talk about their pasts, do you follow them as well?" He wilted under her gaze, but persisted.

"Come on Star, you saw how down she was yesterday! And this morning! Don't you think we might be able to help if we knew a little more about her?" That was a more effective argument and despite herself, Starfire felt herself being one over. The chance to help a friend was not something she could pass up. Beast Boy must have sensed her wavering, because at that particular moment, he cheated. Suddenly instead of a boy there was a tiny green kitten that looked up at her with big eyes.

"Meow..." Starfire bit her lip and tried to resist the cuteness... to no avail.

"Alright, we will follow friend Siren and try to help her!" She relented. Instantly Beast Boy took human form and pumped his fist in victory.

* * *

There was only a small portion of the city that Siren could teleport to from the tower, so it did not take very long to locate her, but what they found was surprising.

"When did Siren start wearing street clothes?" Beast Boy wondered aloud from their rooftop perch. They watched their friend on the sidewalk below. Where she'd stored the diving suit was unknown, but Eleanor was now wearing white sneakers, blue jeans, a white blouse, and had her hands in the pockets of an open sky blue vest.

"What do you mean?" Starfire gave him a nonplussed look.

"You know, street clothes!" He pointed at Siren. "She's wearing that stuff so people won't know that she's a hero."

"But Siren often removes her helmet in public," Starfire pointed out. "Would they not recognize her face?"

"Without the diving suit? Maybe people wouldn't make the connection so quick. She seems to put it on when she knows there are camera's around," Beast Boy shrugged. At least she wasn't green. "Come on!" They followed her in the air, Beast Boy camouflaging himself in the form of a pigeon, keeping pace with their friend on the pavement below. They went on like this for some time, then their target started cutting through alleys and side streets. Normally a young girl poking through dark alleys alone would be a terrifically bad idea, but Siren was Siren. More importantly, the limited space between buildings made keeping track of her much more difficult.

"Has she seen us?" Starfire asked worriedly.

_No way she saw us!_ Was what Beast Boy wanted to say, but as he was currently a pidgeon all he could do was make a sort of hooting noise. He flew lower and Siren came into clear view, walking down a side street. There was no way he was going to mess this-

"Beast Boy! Look out!" The green shapeshifter had enough time to look up and squawk loudly before plowing face first into a billboard. He reverted to human form and slid down it painfully before falling to the rooftop with a yelp. Starfire flew down to him, concerned. Beast Boy sat up with a groan.

"Okay... I think she saw us."

* * *

They'd lost Siren in the air, so they opted for the ground. Beast Boy, in a rare moment of foresight, had memorized the scent of all the other Titans.

"This time I'll find her, I know it!" He assured Starfire before transforming into a blood hound. The scent led them out of the dark alleys and into more well trafficked street. This went on for several blocks and Beast Boy was picking up speed, certain that Siren was close. He rounded a corner... And bowled over a pedestrian, sprawling to the ground with sharp bark of surprise himself.

"Oh! I am sorry! Are you alright?" Starfire rushed to the civilian and offered a hand. The civilian, a young blonde, nodded in starstruck silence and took the offered hand. It wasn't everyday the famous Teen Titans ran into you. Beast Boy, however, was impatient. The scent was stronger than ever.

"Come on Star!" He said eagerly, shifting to human form. "We almost got her!"

"I do not think that is correct..." Starfire pointed at the girl's vest, her blue vest...

"Ahg!" Beast Boy grabbed his head in disappointment. "She threw us off the scent? Dude!"

"Do you really want to know?"

"Ah!" He shrieked and whipped around in surprise.

"Sire-er-Eleanor!" Exclaimed Starfire, remembering that her friend supposedly wanted to remain incognito. Eleanor was standing with her hands on her hips, an unreadable expression on her face. "We are sorry! We only wanted to help..." Starfire trailed off when Eleanor raised a hand.

"It's alright, I... realize I've been a bit mysterious." She admitted. "It's not that I don't trust you guys, I just... want to leave certain parts of my past behind."

"If you want to keep it in the past, why are you disappearing into the city and trying to throw us off?" Beast Boy, still a bit shaken by her sudden appearance.

"Because I can't leave it behind yet, I have responsibilities." Eleanor bit her lip and, coming to a decision, met their gazes. "It would be easier for me to show you, so why don't you follow me some more?" With that she turned and made her way down the street. Beast Boy and Starfire glanced at each other, then followed.

"Um, do you want this back?" The civilian girl plucked at the blue vest she was still wearing. Eleanor looked over her shoulder.

"Keep it, it's fine... I don't need it."

* * *

Eleanor led them to the Jump City General Hospital. Starfire and Beast Boy attracted more than a few interested stares and autograph requests, but nobody gave Eleanor a second glance. Perhaps her secret identity was more more secure than either of them might have guessed. Eleanor brought them to the coma ward before she came to a stop and turned to them.

"I might have to talk your way in," She cautioned, "So just let me handle it." Even as she finished, a tall man in a white lab coat walked around the corner. He was a dour fellow with brown hair and eyes, but he seemed to brighten as his eyes set on the Rapturian.

"Ah, Eleanor, I thought you wouldn't be visiting again for several days."

"Hello Dr. Lutwidge." Eleanor extended her hand and shook his. "These are friends of mine."

"Friends, you say?" He examined both other Titans with raised eyebrows. "My, don't you travel in august company..."

"Doctor," She cleared her throat. "I was hoping I could take them with me to visit the girls, would that be alright?"

"Certainly," The doctor said without pause and he smiled. "I can't deny the Teen Titans, can I?" The smile didn't seem to reach his eyes, but Eleanor returned it anyway.

"Thank you doctor," Eleanor led them past the doctor and the door to a large room. There she stopped and looked at them. "This is where I go," She opened the door and both Titans gasped. Lining the walls of the room were over a dozen beds, each cradling a tiny form. Little girls, no more than seven or eight years old, all comatose.

"Woah... Who are they?" Beast Boy breathed.

"My sisters," Eleanor walked to the nearest bed, taking the little girl's hand in her own. "Or close enough, we went through a lot together."

"Is that what yesterday reminded you of?" Starfire asked gently. The brunette nodded, her gazing softly at the small girl's face.

"It wasn't the fire, it was the research." She spoke haltingly, clearly uncomfortable with the topic. "Me and the girls... We were the subjects of... genetic experimentation. It's why I can do what I can do. I guess I felt I'd left all of that behind..." Moved, Starfire put a hand on Eleanor's shoulder.

"I am sorry, this must be very difficult for you. How long have they been like this?" Eleanor hesitated before answering.

"...A long time. I'm sort of glad you followed me today. It feels good to tell someone else about it."

* * *

Dr. Lutwidge watched the trio of superheroes on a camera feed from the comfort of his office. He had always known the true identity of Miss Eleanor Lamb. Officially, there was no evidence of the telekinesis or flash of light exhibited by her initial escape. Hospital personnel that reported otherwise were simply assumed to be suffering from shock due to the explosion that followed shortly after. With the alien invasion and formation of the Teen Titans, the story of the drifting vessel and the comatose girls slipped into obscurity. Eleanor simply awoke in a state of panic and fled the scene while everyone was confused. He knew these were false facts, he had helped hide the truth himself. Why? For the same reason he had hidden the full results of the children's blood work from the rest of the hospital staff. Eleanor's blood had been brimming with ADAM, not the trace amounts found in the others' blood. As long as her identity was not full public knowledge, she would continue to visit the hospital. As long as she continued to visit the hospital, he might get the chance to learn more. It let him keep his eye on her.

His brow furrowed and his lip curled in frustration. The other Titans' presence confirmed her identity as Siren, but it was not anything he didn't already know. He had already begun experimentation with the equipment stolen the other day. The effects were striking and almost instantaneous, yet another miracle of ADAM. However, as Siren, Eleanor had demonstrated power and ability surpassing any of his results. He had his suspicions that the answer may yet be found in his grandfather's journals, but she was a point of interest regardless. Species from other planets: such as Martians, Kryptonians, and even Tamaranians like her friend had such remarkable abilities. Yet humans were such weak and pathetic creatures. Imagine if every human was born like her, with an array of powers to make the rest of the cosmos seethe with envy? A thought for another time.

"...I'd like to see your mettle tested in person, I think," He pulled up another window on his computer and began typing commands.

* * *

Eleanor was pleased. Beast Boy and Starfire's reactions to her admittedly heavily redacted revelation were better than expected. In hindsight, she shouldn't have been surprised. Beast Boy's abilities were a product of science gone wrong as well and Starfire, despite or because of her naïveté, was the most compassionate and loving person Eleanor had ever met. Granted, that was a short list to begin with.

"How often do you come here?" Starfire asked.

"Once a week," Eleanor was moving between the beds, holding the girls' hands in turn for several minutes. "I like to think they can tell I'm here on some level."

"Isn't there something we can do?" Beast Boy scratched the back of his head. Eleanor shook hers sadly.

"I've tried, and the doctors have tried as well. I contacted someone... But all I can do is wait."

"Who?" Starfire asked. Eleanor furrowed her brow and looked out the window, trying to decide just how much she wanted to reveal. Fortunately for her, she never had to make that call. A thunderous crash along with several screams of terror sounded from out the window. The trio of Titans went to the window and peered out at the ruckus. Out the window was a muscle bound hulk, taller than any normal man and muscles that bulged more than an Olympic body builder. His eyes were bloodshot crazed and his head appeared to be losing hair even as they watched. With an animalistic roar, he wrenched a piece of the sidewalk from the ground and tossed it at an oncoming vehicle. The car swerved and crashed into a street lamp, while the hulk beat his chest like a gorilla.

"Oh great, where do guys like this come from?" Beast Boy complained. Ignoring him, Eleanor pushed open the window and stepped back.

"Go ahead, I'll catch up." Starfire nodded, grabbed Beast Boy by the collar and flew out onto the street with a yelp from the green shapeshifter. Siren bit her lip, then turned and marched out the door. If they were expecting her to appear fully dressed in her diving suit, they would be disappointed. In hindsight, it might have been better to carry the suit in a bag rather than stashing it in a secure hiding spot on the docks. On the other hand, she had no desire to break whatever secrecy her true identity still had. The Titans had many enemies and any of them might target the girls it she was found out. While she was mulling this over, she heard her communicator ping. Opening it, Robin's face peered out from the screen.

"Titans, trouble!"

"By the hospital? We're on it." Eleanor told him.

"Can the three of you handle it?"

"I think so..." She said uncertainly. "Wait, how did you know where we are?"

"The communicators have tracking devices," Robin reminded her.

"I thought I turned that off before I left."

"You did, Beast Boy and Starfire didn't." He explained impatiently. "Is this really the time?"

"Sorry..." Even though it was through a screen, she avoided his gaze and squirmed awkwardly. "I'll get right on it." With the communicator shut, she continued walking, hoping to come up with something between here and the front door. Teleporting in with a barrage of fire and lightning wasn't an option. So what did that leave? When Eleanor arrived at the front door, there was a tentative crowd growing to watch the brawl outside. If anything, that made things worse for her. "Excuse me..." She pushed her way through to the front of the assembled watchers, more than a small number with cameras, until she was free of them. The first thing she saw was Starfire flying across the street and smashing into several trash cans. Following her trail, Eleanor saw Beast Boy in the form of a massive gorilla locking grips with the hulk, struggling to keep him at bay and matching him primal roar for primal roar. Starfire rose from the pile of garbage, eyes flaring green, and launched a starbolt at the man-creature's exposed back.

It somehow seemed to sense the green bolt of energy coming. Still locked with Beast Boy, the man-creature twisted them both around, out if its path, and with a furious roar, tossed the green primate through the air like a rag doll. Flailing, Beast Boy managed to recover by turning into a hawk, wheeling about towards the raging mutant. Eleanor fidgeted uncomfortably and glanced at the crowd around her. She wasn't vain, but she knew she was pretty. However, she also knew from experience that her features were not so striking that she could be recognized at a glance as Siren without her suit and the Teen Titans behind her. If she started throwing fire, people would probably make the connection however. Eleanor eyed the wreckage of the battle. There was one trick she could try.

Resisting the reflex to raise her arm, Eleanor stared at a briefcase size piece of rubble and focused. After a few moments it began to levitate off the ground and then it rocketed through the air to smash into the mutant as it started to charge. It struck it in the face and, reeling in agony, its gaze cast about for its attacker. Another piece rose from the ground, this one half again the size of the first, then two fist sized pieces, and then more and more rained onto the man-creature in a barrage.

"RAGH!" It screamed in impotent rage as it held its arms in front of its face. Starfire joined in with a hail of starbolts and the creature's screams became only more raucous. Eleanor panted ever so slightly, her furrowed brow beaded with sweat. This was the most she'd ever used telekinesis in some time and it showed. She would need something bigger to do more than annoy the creature though. Her gaze fell on a fallen street lamp. Her telekinetic power had never been as great as Raven's and Siren had always accepted that. The street lamp would be the largest thing she had ever moved, so perhaps now would be the time to stretch her limits. Biting her lip, Eleanor focused... and it moved. Shakily but surely, the street lamp rose into the air. Her head began to pound, but Eleanor ignored it. She directed every ounce of her will to sending the lamp careening towards the creature... And then it did.

It struck him in the stomach with such force that it actually began to bend around him. Eyes bulging with fury and pain, the man-creature dropped its guard and grasped the the metal pole before it dropped to the ground. That was when several metric tons of green T-Rex landed on its back with a great crash, pinning it to the ground. Starfire swooped in and bent the street lamp the rest of the way around the creature, effectively binding him. It roared angrily and Eleanor smiled. She had just noticed that she was drenched in sweat and trembling slightly, but the beast was stopped, her friends would trust her more, and her secret identity, while not the best kept secret to begin with, was as secure as it had ever been. It was a good day.

* * *

Ryan Lutwidge was positively giddy. For certain, he had expected to see Siren rush out and utilize the full array of her abilities, but aside from the thrill of being able to watch from the comfort of his own office window he had been excited to see such a considerable show of telekinesis all without moving a muscle. He watched the Titans move away from his test subject as the authorities approached and heaved a pleasant sigh. It was also good to see the pheromone control system working as his grandfather's obtuse notes suggested it might. He glanced at his palm and with an exertion of will the flesh twisted. A fleshy red orb emerged from his hand, a gaseous substance swirling within. With another act of will, it disappeared as if it had never been.

"So useful," He reached into his desk and removed a small trigger device. Lutwidge looked at his test subject one more time. "Sir, I thank you for your service. You have propelled me further along a path that will change the world. However..." He triggered the device. Instantaneously, the man-creature burst into white hot flames. Its shrieks of rage and agony reached new heights as the police and Titans leapt away from it in shock. In another moment, it was dead. In under a minute, only ashes would remain. "...I can't afford to tip my hand just yet."

* * *

By the time Eleanor had changed into her suit and the trio of Titans had returned to the tower, night had begun to fall. She bid Starfire and Beast Boy good night until dinner, but rather than returning to her room, she found herself knocking on Robin's door.

"Come in," She obeyed the invitation and found herself in standing behind Robin as he typed at a computer.

"What are you working on?" She folded her arms and tilted her head to try and see the screen.

"A new villain file," He shifted to give her a better view. The masked face of Apex stared back at her. She frowned, but it wasn't her reason for coming, not entirely.

"Did you know about me visiting the hospital? Before today I mean."

"What you do with your time, is your business." He said stiffly.

"Nice evasion, want to try again?" At her insistence, he sighed, perhaps guiltily. He spun his chair around to face her.

"Alright... Yes, I knew." Eleanor's shoulders sagged. Apparently she hadn't been as clever as she'd thought she'd been.

"How?" In response, he pointed to himself.

"Protege of the world's greatest detective," Eleanor decided to let him have that evasion.

"So, do you think today's incident and yesterday's robbery are connected?" She switched topics. Robin swung back to his computer,

"Too soon to say, but considering the timing and what was stolen? My gut says yes."

"Then we haven't seen the last of him," She found herself staring at the picture on the computer, as if she could will herself to see through the mask in the photo. Eleanor couldn't help but feel a sense of foreboding wash over her.

"No, but don't worry, we'll get him."

* * *

**Author's Note: Surprised? I am. I didn't expect to get this out until at least Thursday, but give someone a few hours with nothing else to do and they can really get on a roll. I hope you enjoyed my elaboration on Luwidge, and his new supervillian name, Apex. He's not terribly powerful now, but smart. That's sort of going to become a tradeoff once he starts splicing more. Pity he didn't have the foresight to look into side effects...  
**

**So I'm still not terribly happy with the way Beast Boy turned out. Frankly my sense of humor tends to be on the dry side and I'm prone to over thinking, so Beast Boy's impulsiveness and bad jokes just don't come as intuitively to my mind as the other characters. I'm not sure how I could make it better, so I left it as is.**

**Comments and reviews are always appreciated!**


	4. Episode 3: Final Exam

"The Hive Academy for Extraordinary Young People is proud to present this year's top graduates," In the dark recesses of his hideout, Slade watched the screen with collected interest. It amused him that an organization would create such an elaborate presentation for what were, in the end, teenage mercenaries, and set it to serene classical music no less. What mattered though, was whether or not they would suit his purposes. On screen, a trio of individuals was raised to view. Most obvious was the massive muscular male towering over the other two with a bestial look about him. Beside him was a peculiar slight girl with pink hair done up like a pair of horns. Clothing wise, she seemed to be going for a Lolita goth look. Standing before them was the shortest of the trio, a small bald kid with a cocky grin and a pair of goggles on his head. The trio leapt from the pedestal and the camera focused on the bald boy.

"Gizmo, the boy genius whose intellect can solve any problem with an inventive solution." The kid pressed a button on his jumpsuit and a pair of metal wings unfolded from his backpack. He flew through a barrage of turret fire and launched missiles that consumed his attackers in concussive explosions. He landed and then the pink haired girl took the frame.

"Jinx, the enchanting sorceress whose powerful hexes mean bad luck for her enemies." Robots rose from the floor around her, but the girl simply spun daintily in place with her arms outstretched, sending waves of pink light into the walls. Just as the robots were about to reach her, heavy wall panels fell and crushed them entirely. She flipped away from the carnage and an array of turrets rose from the ground in her path. The giant suddenly appeared, smashing one of the turrets and throwing it through the air.

"And Mammoth, the genetically enhanced giant whose unstoppable strength speaks for itself." The turret careened into a second, destroying them both and smashing into a third. Another robot, appeared, twice as large as the giant, and wrapped its arms around him. Gizmo landed on its back and affixed a device. The machine short circuited and toppled to the ground when the giant shrugged it off.

"Well organized, highly trained, and combat equipped, these new H.I.V.E. agents are the perfect fighting force." Mammoth threw Jinx and she tumbled through the air, cartwheeling through a gauntlet of wall turrets and causing them to shoot one another. She came to a perfect stop and the other two joined her in the center of the screen. "And for the right price, this ideal team can be yours." The images faded to be replaced by the H.I.V.E. insignia. An elderly but sharply dressed woman walked in front of the screen.

"Well, Mr. Slade?" She asked expectantly.

"Impressive, truly." He spoke in a tone that could have been genuine or mocking. It was impossible to tell. "But robots and obstacle courses only prove so much." He turned and walked away from the screen, the Headmistress trailing after him. "My plans demand operatives that can function in the real world." He took a seat in his chair. "If they want to serve me, they'll have to pass one final exam..." He didn't even look at Headmistress or the assembled team on his right. "Destroy the Teen Titans... And then we'll talk." The criminal mastermind waited as the trio exited the room before turning to his left. They were not his sole appointment today. As if in response to his intent, bright ceiling lights snapped on to illuminate a man in all black with red goggles.

"It's... Good to finally meet you in person." His guest said with poorly concealed nervousness.

"The feeling is mutual," Slade said smoothly. "I've been following your work... Apex, was it?" Slade had been following the man's exploits for the better part of a month, ever since making the connection between the robbery of genetic research and the rampage of an enhanced strongman. That had been a tentative connection, but the similarly if less extremely enhanced thugs had been spotted in several minor bank robberies perpetrated by the mystery man known as Apex. Every time, he and his thugs had vanished before or shortly after the Teen Titans could arrive. Mysterious piles of ashes found in the surrounding area suggested those thugs might not have gotten away after all...

"Er, Mr. Slade," Apex tried to steady his voice, but his experience with criminals in his new double life had been limited to dumb thugs who had bended easily to his will after he got them spliced up and used pheromones to manipulate them. Even he could tell when he'd reached a whole new level. "I was surprised to receive your... Generous offer."

"I like to keep my eye on promising enterprises." The unspoken _And threats_, hung heavy in the air. Slade steepled his fingers. Apex was not yet a threat, but his ability to brainwash, in his crude way, genetically altered thugs to do his bidding made him a potential rival. As it was, it could do little more than tell an insane thug when and where to go on a violent rampage ending in cremation. In the future, a refined version of the technique might move entire armies under his sway. On the other hand, it could come to nothing. Best to keep an eye on him while he's small. "I think we can come to an arrangement."

"You offered funding," Apex folded his arms. His research had proven highly expensive. The medical black market was as costly for the buyers as it was lucrative for the sellers. As he had no intention of putting his work up for the highest bidder, he had turned to robbery over the last month, using failed subjects as distractions while he made off with what he could carry. The last one had been too close for comfort, the Teen Titans had seen him and nearly apprehended him. His bruises were still healing. Not to mention the rate he was going through thugs was burning through his ADAM stockpile with alarming rapidity. Then, an offer from a masked man arrived just as he was reconsidering his budgetary problems...

"...In exchange for services you will render," Slade eyed him coldly. "I want to be kept abreast with your research and make use of it in my own plans when I wish... But I see you have brought me a sample." He finished in a tone as bemused as it was unsurprised. Apex restrained the impulse to gulp in nervousness and maintained his composure. At his gesture, a lumbering figure shuffled out of the shadows. It was atleast seven feet tall, muscular, but not the inhuman bulging flesh of his first subject. It's face was blank, appearing docile and only half aware of its surroundings.

"More of a... joint project. This is Subject Theta,"

"Theta? If the hospital attack was Alpha, you're going through them fast..." Slade gazed up at the specimen, calculating, before returning his gaze to the other masked man.

"And what part do you think I will play in this... Project?"

"This," From his belt, Apex drew a folded piece of paper and offered it to the criminal mastermind. Spade took it and unfolded it.

"A suit?"

"Something that will make Subject Theta much more combat effective," Apex added quickly. He hadn't designed it himself, he was no engineer, most of the design had been lifted from the blueprints he had found in the submersible. Even then, he had to draw heavily from several of his grandfather's old books on mechanical engineering to make sense of what he was looking at, the work of months before he even had his first subject. He just had to adjust the dimensions for Theta. However, he still wasn't an engineer or a metalworker. He lacked the expertise and the resources to manufacture such a thing... But he had a feeling Slade would be able to find both. Slade examined the plans with a discerning eye, then folded the plans and looked at Apex.

"With some alteration, I can have this manufactured and ready in several days,"

"Excellent!" Lutwidge was extatic. That was far better than he could have hoped for. "I'm sure-"

"And in return," Slade continued as if the other man had not spoken. "Theta will help destroy the Teen Titans." Apex was silent for a time. Slade turned away and walked to his chair.

"...Didn't you hire the H.I.V.E. operatives for that purpose?" Apex said stiffly. "Theta is more than strong enough alone to destroy any one of the Titans."

"Then he will assure their destruction all the more," Slade took his seat. "Besides... The absence of the Titans would make your pursuits that much easier, won't it?" The man in red goggles cocked his head at Slade. The mastermind could feel his wariness, but eventually he straightened.

"I will see to it that he is prepared..." With that he bowed out and walked out of the light. Slade sat back in his seat. In truth, he did not expect the H.I.V.E. to succeed with or without Theta. The purpose of the exercise was not to destroy the Titans, merely to get their attention. More precisely, Robin's attention.

He just didn't want to make it too easy.

* * *

_Three Days Later_

"I really, really don't want to know what this stuff is, but I'd kill to know how you got it out of your hair." Siren pulled at her hair anxiously, more precisely the blue moldy gunk that had been living in the Titan's fridge stuck in it. It was probably mold or something similar but nobody with it stuck in their hair particularly wants to think about what it is. "...Maybe I should shave my head."

"It's convenient," Cyborg nodded his own literal chrome dome.

"Yeah... Before you break out the razor..." Raven raised a hand towards her friend and darkness wrapped around the offending substance. With a nauseatingly slimey noise, the mold yanked forcefully from her hair.

"Ouch!" Siren's hands flew to her sorely abused scalp and she shot Raven an angry look. "That hurt!" The goth only shrugged at her. With Eleanor's hair no longer the major topic, the conversation quickly turned to more pressing matters, like pizza toppings. The Titans were currently sitting at a table on the roof balcony of their favorite pizza place. Funnily enough, the same one Starfire had banged up on her first day on Earth. They hadn't originally been planning to go out for pizza but after Starfire had blown the blue mold infesting the refrigerator all over the living room, it had seemed prudent.

"C'mon! How can you deny me the all meat experience!" Cyborg was saying.

"Dude! I've _been_ most of those animals!" The old argument, revisited.

"Why don't you just get two pizzas?" Siren asked distractedly, running her fingers through her hair to make sure it was gunk free. "I'm getting my own..."

"Too logical," Raven deadpanned.

"What toppings?" Robin asked.

"A bit of everything," Siren shrugged her shoulders and stopped messing with her hair.

"I suggest a large pizza with pickles, bananas, and mint frosting." Starfire smiled happily.

...

"Uh, Starfire," Robin leaned over to her in the awkward silence. "Not everything on the menu is a pizza topping."

"Oh..." The Tamaranian turned red and scratched the back of her head sheepishly.

"Double pepperoni!" Cyborg resumed the argument.

"I'm not eating meat!" The green boy shouted.

"There's no meat in pepperoni!" The metal man exclaimed incredulously. Siren almost corrected him, that pepperoni was usually made from beef or pork, but it didn't really seem worth it. They began bickering back and forth, Robin joined in and Siren couldn't really tell what anyone was saying anymore. What she did hear, what they all heard, was the squeal of rubber on pavement accelarating. Instinctively, Siren looked up the street to see a bus barreling down the avenue towards them. More disturbing, nobody was behind the wheel. Beast Boy gasped and her gaze shifted to the cause of his distress, an abandoned stroller sitting in the middle of the crosswalk. The frightened crying of a baby could be heard from within. The Titans rose as one.

"Titans, go!" Robin called out. Starfire leapt into the air, swooped down and pushed the stroller out of the way. Siren teleported into the path of the costing bus. With an effort of concentration, a small strip of the street rumbled and then cracked as it raised itself slightly above the rest of the asphalt. The bus lurched as it passed over the makeshift speed bump, losing momentum. Siren vanished from its path and there was Cyborg. With a grunt he grabbed onto the bus head on and was pushed along the sidewalk in front of it, dust rising from his skidding feet as he tried to dig in. Raven raised a hand and within the bus the break engaged. Finally the careening vehicle shuddered to a stop.

"Um, don't buses normally have drivers?" The metal man scratched his head.

"And don't baby carriages normally have babies?" Confused, Siren turned towards the carriage. Robin was standing in front of it with Starfire and Beast Boy at his shoulder, a bewildered expression on his face and a stuffed bear in his hands.

"Are you pit sniffers normally this stupid?" A sarcastic voice issued from the bear. Its eyes began to glow.

*BOOM!*

The force of the blast sent the trio hurtling through the air across the street. Before anyone had a chance to react, the groan of strained metal drew their attention back to the bus as the front end rose up into the air. They stared in disbelief as it looked over them... And then came crashing down.

Siren materialized on the roof of the bus even as its underside had begun to come down on her shoulders. She crouched, hidden by the haze thrown up by the impact of the vehicle. A hairy muscled giant walked out from behind the bus, dusting off his hands satisfactorily. From her position, she could also see a strange looking pink haired girl with a Lolita look and a tiny bald kid joining him.

"That was too easy. What a bunch of kludge heads!" The bald boy laughed in his high and highly annoying voice. "Want to get a pizza?"

"This isn't over!" Robin picked himself off the ground where he had fallen. Beast Boy and Starfire dusted themselves off behind him.

"Not by a long shot!" Siren called out as she leapt from the roof of the bus to deliver a drop kick to the giant's head. She was acquiring the Titan's habit of using one liners. The impact sent the the giant staggering. Even as her feet touched the ground, the bus dramatically flipped onto its side as a sonic blast hit it from beneath.

"We're just getting started!" Cyborg stood up. Raven rose beside him as a silent shadow.

"*cough* Who are these guys? And what's a kludge head?" Beast Boy asked, plucking a banana peel from his hair.

"We're the H.I.V.E." The annoying boy smirked.

"Your worst nightmare," The giant punched his open palm and glowered viciously at Siren.

"And this," The lolita announced, "is attack pattern alpha." Immediately the trio of villains sprang into action. An engine fired to life from the boy's backpack, propelling him skyward. A barrage of fire from him sent rubble falling towards Robin, Starfire, and Beast Boy, stopping them in their tracks and blocking the alley. The pink haired girl began trading punches, kicks and bursts of magic with Raven and the giant came after Siren. Eleanor tensed as he charged her. When his first hammer blow of a punch came, she sidestepped it and it struck the street with such force the asphalt cracked.

"I've had much worse nightmares than you," Siren whispered. Her fist crackled with lightning as she directed it towards the giant's chest. He grunted in pain and shuddered spastically. Her other fist rose, fire burning in her palm for another blow when the giant's massive hand engulfed her entire forearm.

"Hah!" Cyborg's metal fist plowed into the side of the giant's face. The genetically engineered strongman was knocked clear off his feet, landing in a heap with an animalistic growl.

"Thanks," Siren glanced at Cyborg and then at the giant.

"Any ti-AH!" Suddenly a great metallic form plowed into the Titan from the side, sending him skidding across the pavement. Standing in the dust, it turned towards Siren. It was nearly as tall as the giant, lightning crackled over the dark metal surface of its armor and a red light gleamed from its visor. A massive drill where its left hand should have been roared to life and a noise of guttural fury issued from behind its mask.

"I don't care that we were told to fight with you," The giant stood with clenched fists. "Butt out! I'm taking care of these."

"Oh great..." Siren summoned lightning to each hand and looked between the two behemoths. "Now who are _you_?" The giant didn't respond and the metal suit only gave another angry groan. It struck a cord in Eleanor's memory, a thread she didn't want to follow...

"I don't care!" Suddenly the armored suit was staggered by a pulse of blue light as Cyborg stood from the ground, sonic cannon at the ready. "We're-"

"Shut it, tin man!" The bald kid appeared as if out of nowhere and latched on to the half machine man's back. There was a clanking noise as something attached.

"Hey!" Cyborg reached over his shoulder to snatch at the boy, but the kid leapt away too quickly. "What're you- Wooooooaaaaaah!" He was flying through the sky before he knew what hit him, flailing helplessly as the rocket the kid had attached to his back propelled him in a haphazard course.

"Cyborg!" Siren heard Starfire gasp. She, Robin and the green shapeshifter had finally extricated themselves from the rubble. The Tamaranian gave chase to the rocketing metal man, and as Raven was just then knocked down by another of the bald boy's ambushes during her fight with the pink haired sorceress, that left three Titans for four villains.

"No use standing around," Eleanor muttered. In a violet flash she was behind the armored drill man. Flames leapt from her palms and she threw them in a barrage. He let loose another deep groan and hunched over as fire wreathed his armored form. Siren was encouraged. She was preparing another flurry when he rounded on her with surprising speed. The drill came down like a missile, whirring with arcs of lightning. Unfortunately for him, she was faster. She leapt away from the drill as it powered down into the street and thought she was clear when she saw... A flash of pink?

"Bad luck for you," She heard the lolita sorceress' remark snidely. Then Siren's foot sank an inch into the pavement as if a sinkhole had spontaneously developed. It wasn't enough to stick her in place, but more than enough to throw off her landing. Instead of the graceful cat's crouch she had planned, she hit the ground sprawling with an 'umph'.

"What the!?" Siren sputtered, honestly bewildered by what had just happened. She yanked her foot out of the hole and looked up in time to see the armored man ripping the drill out of the ground, not the way it had come, but horizontally right at her. She didn't even have enough time to try and teleport. The side of the drill plowed into her. Siren felt ribs crack and an electric agony flowed through her every nerve as the lightning arced over her body. Then she was tumbling through the air and skidding along the ground. For precious seconds, she lay where she had fallen, electricity sparking off her suit. When she came to her senses and forced herself to her knees, Siren saw Raven in a similar position not far from her. Past her, she saw Beast Boy charge the villains as a great green elephant only for the giant to lift the massive mammal over his head.

"Mammoth's going to make _you_ extinct!" He tossed the shapeshifter in the air and hit him with a spinning punch. Beast Boy reverted to human form just in time to crash into Robin, sending them both down in a tangled heap near Siren and Raven.

"Is it just me," Beast Boy groaned. "Or are we getting our butts kicked?"

"It's just you!" The other three snapped simultaneously as they got to their feet.

"Listen up team," Robin began, "I've got a plan..." Nobody got to find out what that plan was, because two yellow bolts of energy flew amongst them and sent Beast Boy and Raven flying even further down the street. Siren turned on the four opponents, only to see the armored man's drill spinning and arcing with electricity even faster than usual. Then a massive white lightning bolt struck her dead in the chest with a mighty crack. For a moment, she was blind, deaf and felt even more agony coursing through her body, but she still felt herself falling and striking the pavement some distance from where she had begun.

"Gee, scrum buffer, I sure hope your fancy plan includes getting fried!" The bald kid taunted, his shoulder turret still smoking from the energy blasts.

"You'll just have to find out the hard way." Undeterred, Robin beckoned the villains to come at him. They were all too eager to comply. The boy fired his turret into the pavement, sending cracks running throughout. The girl slid infront of him, unleashing a wave of pink energy. The cracks stretched across half the street and under Robin's feet. Then the giant leapt in, bringing both fists down in an over handed smash.

The street caved in.

"Aaah!" Robin cried out as he tumbled with the falling rubble and was gone. By this time, the other three Titans had recovered and ran to the edge of the hole, but the only the churning sewer lay below.

"Robin!" The shapeshifter called. No answer came.

* * *

The H.I.V.E. and that mysterious armored man backed off after they opened half the street to the sewer and the police began to show up. Siren and the others searched the sewers nearby as best they could, but there was no sign of Robin to be found and no indication of where he might have ended up. Eventually the trio, beaten and limping in Beast Boy's case, returned to the tower worse for wear and bearing grim countenances. The shapeshifter leaned on Raven for support as they made their way into the entrance hall.

"That didn't just happen," Beast Boy muttered in a daze. Raven helped him sit down. Siren took the seat beside him, rubbing her head. Her every nerve ending was still tingling. "Tell me that didn't just happen..."

"Afraid to say it did." Eleanor said quietly.

"We cannot change the truth," The goth pulled down her hood. "No matter how much we dislike it." The green boy went silent. He rubbed his knee with a pained expression. Seeing his discomfort, Raven reached out towards his leg and a shimmering aura formed around her hands. Beast Boy's expression shifted from surprise to nervousness to relief. He smiled goofily at the goth with forced good cheer.

"Who knew we had a doctor in the house? Thanks."

"No problem," Raven turned concerned eyes on Siren. "How about you? I saw you get hit."

"Don't worry about me," Siren waved her off and tried to offer a reassuring smile. It just looked tired. "I heal fast," The violet haired girl frowned and opened her mouth to reply but the entrance hall opened just then.

"Maybe you should all call me flyborg," Cyborg joked as he and Starfire walked in. "I was halfway to Gotham when Star blasted that thing off my back! So what'd I miss?" His grin wavered as he saw their glum faces. "Tell me how we kicked their butts. Come on, I gotta have the play by play!"

"Where is Robin?" Starfire put in worriedly.

"Um, Star..." Beast Boy looked at the ground. "We're not sure..."

"Not sure?" She echoed, her voice rising. "Why are you not-"

"We searched everywhere," Raven reached into her cloak to produce the boy wonder's utility belt. "And all we found was this." Starfire gasped. Cyborg grabbed his head with both hands.

"I should have been there! I let that kid sneak up on me and I- What was I-" The metal man muttered furiously to himself. "It was a trap and I-I should have known."

"I do not understand, how could you not find him?" Starfire flew forward, distressed. "People do not just vanish! He has to be someplace so go there and look!"

"Starfire," Siren had stood and put a hand on the alien girl's shoulder. "You need to calm down"

"Yeah!" Beast Boy put. "This is Robin, he's probably going to show up any minute!" As if summoned by his sentiment, a loud noise came to from the door. Everyone turned towards it. "Good timing!"

"Robin!" The Tamaranian gasped hopefully and tore away from Siren towards the door. The former Little Sister hesitated, sensing something off.

"Wait, Star-" The door exploded inwards, sending Starfire flying and smoke billowing into the entrance hall. Out of the smoke, the three H.I.V.E. operatives emerged.

"Oh no..." The green shapeshifter braced himself.

"Oh yes," The pink haired sorceress grinned. The Titans regrouped and faced the trio of villains walking in through the smoke.

"You guys got lucky last time, but you're in our house now!" Cyborg challenged.

"Yeah, nice place, we'll take-" The bald kid's smirk was wiped off his face as a bolt of lightning sparked off his backpack and sent him tumbling to the ground with a yelp. A red visored silhouette loomed in the smoky haze, spinning drill pointed into the hall and arcs of lightning sputtering off it erratically. "Watch it, scum licker!" The kid shook his fist from the ground, even as a larger and brighter bolt rocketed through the hall to collide with the far wall in a shower of sparks. The hall erupted into chaos. Magic, energy bolts, and tumultuous clashes echoed throughout. Siren found herself dodging the giant's drill, wincing as stray bolts of lightning sparked off her armor. She tried to get to the others but her opponent pursued her with single minded relentlessness.

"Split up!" She heard Cyborg shout and saw the other Titans fleeing the hall. Siren turned to face her pursuer as he advanced for another attack.

"Let's see if you can follow this," She muttered and disappeared. When she reappeared an instant later, she was in the garage. Robin's motorcycle stood in the corner with a few tools and parts scattered about it. Otherwise the room was quite bare. When she had caught her breath, Siren examined herself. The armored portion of her diving suit was glowing faintly red in spots, the surface heated dramatically by the lightning. Parts of her white undersuit were scorched black but it had proven its durability.

"Splitting them up wasn't a bad idea," Eleanor sighed to herself and looked up at the ceiling. "But where did you all go..." She'd seen Starfire and Raven fleeing up a flight of stairs together. Beast Boy and Cyborg had fled in two other directions completely. Where would they try and lead their pursuers? Siren leaned against the wall, thinking on it... until the wall behind her began to vibrate and the all too familiar sound of a spinning drill reached her ears.

"You've got to be kidding me!" She leapt away from the wall just as the tip of the drill broke through where her back had been. She twisted in the air and land facing the wall as a gauntleted hand punched through the wall next two it. For the first time she noticed a symbol on the back of its hand, a Greek letter, a circle with a horizontal line through it. "Theta..." Again that thread of memory tugged, but it was impossible. This world was strange in the extreme. Certainly there were other explanations for such an armored creature.

"Rrrrah!" The armored being smashed the rest of the way through the wall with a surge of force. Lightning crackled throughout the room, bouncing between the armor, the drill and assorted metal objects throughout the room. Siren was ready. She unleashed a barrage of fire bolts while rushing to meet the juggernaut. Her first wreathed in flame, she delivered a powerful uppercut to its helmet, sending it two steps back. It swung its drill at her and she avoided it with a backflip. Even so, the tip grazed her and she heard a loud metal screech. She did a hand spring and landed on the opposite side of the room. A jagged gash had been carved into her right armored glove. This was no good. She needed backup.

"Gotta run," She quipped at Theta and vanished in a violet flash...

...and reappeared in the weight room.

"Raven! Starfire!" She cried out in relief. Both fellow Titans turned towards her in surprise, the Tamaranian had just finished fusing the doors together.

"Siren?" Starfire had just enough time to exclaim her surprise when Mammoth's hairy head burst through the wall.

"Hello ladies," He grinned viciously. Eleanor got a sinking feeling as she once again heard the sound of a drill in the distance.

* * *

"Aaaaah!" Cyborg was flying through the air for the second time today, but this time was different. Last time he wasn't missing an arm. Last time he wasn't hurtling face first into the ocean, which he presently did with a very painful splash. He came up sputtering and gasping for breath, struggling to keep his heavy metal form from sinking. Then he heard four distinct screams getting louder before they splashed down around him.

One by one, Siren, Raven, Starfire and Beast Boy surfaced gasping for breath. They all looked up at the tower to see the distant figures of the H.I.V.E. trio standing in the living room window. A wave of pink energy flew from there to the water and sent up spray. The spray turning into a great swell and the swell to a towering wave. The Titans could only gawk as it came crashing down. Cyborg heard Siren speak just before he was submerged again.

"This would be a really good time to have my helmet,"

* * *

"Formidable," Slade spoke as if remarking on the weather. On the screen that battle played out for the third time and he watched the lightning wreathed armored giant tear up the pavement again. "Clearly an improvement over your... Early work." From beside him, Apex observed the action and stiffened at the mercenary's tone.

"Theta is the product of my refined control methods and genetic conditioning," He watched Slade out of the corner of his eye. "More docile, capable of targeted action."

"And the electrical powers? I had wondered why you wanted the conductive inlays. Clever, using them to power the drill."

"Their the least of it," Apex sniffed, unlike most of Theta's other augments, that had been entirely unaltered from the crate in the submersible. It wasn't his work. "He's a focused machine of destruction."

"Focused, yes, I noticed." Slade took his eyes off the screen and fixed his gaze on the doctor. "Particularly on Siren. Your doing? Chance? Or defect?" His eyes narrowed, but Apex remained silent. Regardless, he seemed to have gotten his answer. He settled back in his chair and they were quiet for a time.

"I assume this seals our bargain," Apex spoke finally.

"Don't don't be impatient, doctor. The day is yet young."

* * *

"So..." Beast Boy began when they had finally reached shore. "Who else never wants to go surfing again?" He laughed half heartedly. Cyborg cast him a withering look.

"Not now man,"

"Hey, I was just trying to-" Raven put a hand on his shoulder and the green boy fell silent. Siren, sat herself down in the sand with a heavy sigh, examining her damaged suit with idle concern. Cyborg opened a panel on his leg and began administering repairs to his sparking circuitry. Starfire approached him.

"Perhaps I could be of some assistance?" She offered tentatively

"I got it,"

"But you are so damaged and-"

"I got it!" He snapped at her angrily. Siren stood from her stupor and looked at the metal man with a pensive expression. Beast Boy was not so restrained.

"Hey! She only wanted to help, what is your problem?!"

"What do you think?!" Cyborg looked at him incredulously. "We got kicked out of our house, a pint sized poindexter just took me for a joyride and, in case you haven't noticed, I just became left handed!" He gesticulated angrily with his new right stub where his robotic arm was supposed to be.

"Enough," Raven pronounced firmly and stared down Cyborg. "We need to control our emotions."

"Or what?! Our bad vibes will keep you from meditating?!" He screamed in her impassive face.

"Stop it!" Siren finally cried out and shoved the metal man. "Please, just stop!" He was so surprised by the outburst that he fell into the sand. "You can't do this, you can't! If you despair its over already..." She couldn't hide the slight tremble in her voice. This team... It meant quite a lot to her, and now it more fragile than it had ever been.

"Don't you get it!?" Cyborg shouted. "They won, we lost, it _is_ over!" They were all quiet for a time. Then Starfire spoke.

"I wish Robin were here..."

"Then..." Beast Boy said weakly as they stared at their stolen tower in the bay. "The Teen Titans are finished?" Siren felt a painful pang at the words.

"Not yet," A familiar voice came from behind them and when they turned there was Robin, looking at them with his arms crossed. The were all speechless. "Not if I can help it."

* * *

The plan was simple enough. Cyborg would control his lost limb, which was evidently hanging on the wall of the living room as a trophy, remotely. He would hack the tower systems, set off an alert and generally make things go haywire. Then they would use the element of surprise to lure the H.I.V.E. and Theta to the roof. That was the part Siren was a bit edgy about. Her encounters with Theta thus far had only gained her some very painful shocks and electrical burns, but it had followed her tirelessly no matter where she went. That was why she had volunteered to take care of him herself. It took several searching teleports before she finally found the juggernaut.

"Oi! Theta right?" He was wandering aimlessly through the upper halls when she found him. At the sound of her voice, it whirled towards her, visor flashing red and drill sparking. She put her foot on a stair leading up towards the roof. "Catch me if you can!" Then she was gone again. She rematerialized beside Robin on the roof. "That should do it,"

"You sure?"

"If he's anything like before..." Some distance away, a bird shaped shadow emerged from the roof, deposited a shaky pink hair sorceress.

"Aaaaah!" Cyborg's rocket propelled right arm roared out of a roof vent, dragging the tiny bald villain by cables up into the sky. It dragged him in nauseating loops and finally released him just to send him hurtling into the lolita, bowling them both over and sending the utility belt she had been holding flying. Robin caught it just as the door to the roof burst open and Mammoth sprawled out next to the other villains.

"Sorry to interrupt the victory celebration," Robin fastened the belt around his waist. "But like I said, this isn't over."

"It's just getting started." Cyborg promised as he reattached his right arm. The villains got to their feet.

"Attack pattern alpha!" The sorceress shouted. The trio scattered and the Titans with them. Siren was about to help Raven distract Mammoth when a drill burst through the roof.

"Hasn't this guy heard of doors?" Beast Boy complained loudly as he stopped beside Siren.

"I don't think he understands the concept," She said dryly. "Go take care of the H.I.V.E., I'll distract him!" The shapeshifter nodded and Siren alone turned to face the juggernaut as it ripped its way up. She cast a fireball at him, teleporting behind him before it struck. Siren reached out to the construction materials littering the roof and telekinetically lifted a trio of steel pipes. With a flick of her wrist they flew like javelin one by one. The first clanged noisily off Theta's flaming armor. The second glanced off his shoulder as he turned toward her and the third was batted aside by his massive drill as he charged. Just as the juggernaut brought the drill bearing down, Siren vanished in a violet flash.

And so they fought, each time Theta raged towards her or fired off bolts of electricity, Siren would materialize elsewhere, leading him closer and closer to the edge of the roof. Behind them, Siren could see the other battles going as planned. There was a great crash as the H.I.V.E.'s efforts to turn the T-tower into an H collapsed around the pink haired sorceress and the bald boy's equipment went haywire. When the edge of the roof was close enough, Siren decided it was time.

"Starfire, now!" The Tamaranian was suddenly hovering over the juggernaut. A flurry of emerald starbolts bombarded the roof around Theta. He issued an angry groan and raised his arms in front of himself protectively. The roof around him cracked and crumbled. When the barrage ceased, Theta's visor still shone crimson through the haze, but Siren had gotten the time she needed. Sweat beaded her brow as she sent the steel beam she had been levitating careening into the his armored form. It was enough to send the juggernaut sliding to the edge and over. At the last possible moment, he stuck his drill into the roof and came to a screeching halt, his legs dangling over the edge. Starfire nodded at Siren and flew off to help subdue Mammoth. The former Little Sister walked to the edge and stared down into the juggernaut's visor.

"I don't know who you are or what you are, and I'm fairly certain you can't even understand what I'm saying." She began, speaking quietly and gravely. "But you remind me of things best left forgotten at the bottom of the Atlantic. I hope it's just a reminder, and nothing more." Siren bit her lip and looked down past Theta, into the waters of the bay. "If you are more... I would have to destroy you. It's not something I'd enjoy but... That legacy is mine to end, you see? However, that's not how things are done up here in the world. Even if it weren't, I can't kill you off a bad feeling, because of the slight chance you _might_ be what I fear." She sighed and shook her head. "You'll be arrested with the others, we'll find out what's inside that armor... And I'll find out if I need to regret this decision." As she stepped away from him, a frenzied guttural shriek issued from the juggernaut. His gauntleted arm surged forward, searching for purchase to pull himself forward. The drill revved up and began to spin furiously, crackling with lightning.

The roof gave way.

It crumbled right beneath his fingers and the he was falling. Siren reached out towards him reflexively as he disappeared below, vanishing with a distant splash. She stared after him in shock.

"Siren, are you alright?" Raven levitated down behind her. Her tone was concerned.

"Yes, I think so..." Siren was shaken. "What about the rest of them?"

"We got them all, come on," The goth gestured to the dogpile the three villains had been thrown in. "We'll search for Theta after we get these three squared away." Siren nodded numbly and together they turned away from the edge.

"Cram it," The bald kid gritted his teeth as the Titans approached and tapped at a device in his hand. "I'm calling Slade." Robin snatched up the pint sized villain and held him by the collar.

"Who is Slade?"

* * *

_Several Hours Later_

Apex stood by a truck at the dockside by a loading ramp in a foul mood. Slade had assured him he would hold up his end of the bargain, but it irked him that the mercenary had counted on his creation's failure in the first place. Worse, the mere fact that Theta had failed was a mark against his personal pride and a setback to his work. There was one silver lining, the armor had been a resounding success despite, he liked to think, Slade's modifications. This particular project represented a considerable investment of time and ADAM, and he was glad it was salvageable.

The water began to stir, ripple as something below disturbed it. Then a helmet appeared, not like an old diving suit as in the original 'Protector' blueprints, he had yet to figure out what exactly they were protecting, but a featureless smooth black helm save for a horizontal visor glowing a docile yellow. The rest followed, rising from the murky brine like some fell knight of the sea, the Greek letter Theta emblazoned on his hand.

As Theta trudged into the back of the truck, Apex shut the door and got in the cab. Apex was pleased with one aspect of his enforcer's performance. While modifying the original subject, he had included a particular ADAM sample. The ADAM taken from the blood work of Eleanor Lamb. It appeared to have granted his some ability to detect ADAM, hers in particular it would seem or perhaps the fixation was simply a byproduct. It warranted further study. Now he would take Theta to his new facilities. His partnership with Slade was bearing fruit already.

"I can't believe this!"

"Can't believe what?" Robin poked his head into Eleanor's room. Irate, she gestured angrily at the portraits in her room.

"What do you think!? Look what those wretches did!" And in looking around he saw that many of her portraits had been graffitied. Rude comments had been scrawled across them in green spray paint. Judging by the numerous uses of 'kludge head', 'scum buffer' and ect., he would guess the bald villain Gizmo was the culprit. "Vandal! Philistine!"

"Don't worry, we'll have the tower back to its old self in no time." He assured her. Siren only sighed and continued offering insults under her breath towards the bratty villain. "Siren," He cleared his throat to get her attention. "I noticed that you seemed a bit disturbed by that fourth fighter, Theta. Is something wrong?"

"..." She stopped and stared at the boy wonder hesitantly.

"I wouldn't be asking, but if you know something about him, we need to know." Robin told her firmly.

"...He reminds me of something from my past." She finally said. "I know you've been looking into me, Robin, so what do you know?"

"I know that nobody named Eleanor Lamb has exists in official records." He admitted. "I know you say you come from the bottom of the ocean and from 1968. From there I have theory and guesswork. Given your age, that would make you young enough to be a child of The Vanishing, a series of notable disappearances around the Atlantic Ocean from 1946 to 1952. One of those disappearances was Sofia Lamb, a clinical psychiatrist." Eleanor made a face at the name.

"Robin... I promise you that if Theta turns out to be an echo from my past, I will tell you, but I don't know." She sat down on her bed and shook her head. "So please, don't ask again." Robin studied her for several moments, then walked up to her and held out a hand.

"Alright, but don't sit here in the dark. I'm going to watch TV with the rest of the team, come on." She smiled and followed him out of the room. She didn't feel it needed to be said, but this team was the best thing that had ever happened to her. Well, she glanced at Father's portrait as she passed through the door frame, it was at least a close second.

* * *

**Author's Note: That took a little longer than I hoped but I blame that on the fight scenes. I tend to struggle for the inspiration for them to begin with and, well, its hard taking a complicated multi-combatant fight and adding a sixth Titan. And this episode is 75% fight scenes. I think I started rushing it towards the end because I wanted to be done with it.  
**

**I took the opportunity this chapter to introduce Apex's enforcer, Theta. When you think about it, Apex is only a tad more powerful than your average splicer on his own. He needed something that could stand as a credible threat. I sort of stretched the plausibility of his development time and the armor fabrication, I know, but I figure Slade must have an impressive industrial base somewhere considering all the robots and drones he replaces on a daily basis.**

**For those that have asked about Booker, I do want to include a Bioshock Infinite plot arc, but I want to see what happens in the upcoming Burial at Sea DLC before coming to any decisions.**

**As per usual, comments and reviews are welcome.  
**


	5. Episode 4: Nevermore

_The door slid open with the sound of grinding rust, Delta surveyed the room beyond. The furnishings had once been lavish, but were now worn and decayed. Fabric torn and faded, metal tarnished and wood rotten. Half an inch of salt water covered the floor, reflecting the soft light from the window in the darkened room._

_And beyond the window was the sea._

_The glow of Rapture's exterior shone blue green, casting the room's sole occupant in stark silhouette. It was a woman, or what had once passed for one, hunched over awkwardly. What had once been white cloth shirt and skirt were in tatters, hopelessly soiled by years of traipsing through the grime of a lost city on the brink of collapse and blood. Blood, she was covered in it. Half her face was swollen and raw as if a second head were trying to grow out of it, the rest of it spotted in red moist sores. It was the eyes that revealed the madness though. Sunken bloodshot orbs, hopeful, desperate, and furious beyond reason, they squinted at Delta even as her fingers tightened around the rusted pipe in her hand. Chapped lips, far too wide, parted and a line of drool dribbled out of the corner of her mouth._

_"Baby? Is that you?" Her raspy voice cracked on the first syllable. Lightning began to crackle in Delta's palm. Her eyes narrowed. "Give her back you oaf!" She spat out a globule of saliva that plunked onto the flooded floor. With surprising speed, she leapt forward with pipe raised. When she was nearly to him, Delta directed a bolt of lightning at the floor, lighting up the room as the electric charge sparked across the water. She went rigid, her lips parted in a silent scream as she began to shake uncontrollably and the charge crackled up and down her body._

_Delta was not one to let even her suffer. He hefted his drill and stepped forward, headless of the painful electric current as he stepped into the room. Her eyes widened and she managed an agonized croak. The drill swung and her head collapsed against it in a spray of gore. New blood and viscera joined the stains on the drill and his suit. Gray matter and skull fragments sprayed across the room. She dropped to the ground with hardly a splash. The electric charge faded and all was dark again. Only Delta and the ocean..._

Eleanor awoke in a cold sweat. She did not stir at first, only gripped the sheets tightly in her balled fists. It was not the first time she had dreamt a memory that was not her own, but these past nights they were becoming more common than her normal dreams. She sat up and hugged her knees, looking out at the city lights across the bay with melancholic eyes.

It was Theta, she knew, that occupied her worries and thoughts. The one they had never found in the bay. There was no way Theta could be one of _them_. Rapture was sunken, probably long ago flooded. It's secrets could not have escaped to the surface without incident over all these years and yet... She could not shake the thought no matter how hard she tried.

Eleanor exhaled and tried to calm herself. If she jumped at every shadow of Rapture liked this, she would never be able to move forward, presuming it was just a shadow...

"And there I go again." Eleanor laid back on the bed with a sigh and stared up at the the ceiling. Eleanor was cursed with a thoughtful disposition, and sometimes that meant her thoughts were just impossible to stop once they got going. That went double for the lifetimes of foreign memories stored in her genetic code. They just kept running on and on at a frenzied pace and now they ran in a circle. Eleanor closed her eyes and did her very best to return to slumber.

* * *

When one lives a life of superheroic vigilantism, there are three types of days. On a normal day, one goes out to fight the villains and criminals of the city. They go to prison and the heroes go home. On a really good day, nothing at all happens and the heroes are free to spend their days the way normal people do: having fun with friends, worrying about relationships, and working on pet projects. Then there were bad days. Tonight, Eleanor decided, was shaping up to put this day in the bad category.

"Ahahahaha!" Dr. Light laughed as he let loose a red bolt that detonated on a truck behind Cyborg, releasing so much heat that the metal softened and solidified around his limbs, immobilizing him. Siren teleported behind the madman knocked him skidding across ground with a devastating right hook. She summoned fire to her hands and the doctor grinned at her fiendishly.

"Fire? Fire is for primitives! It's no match for pure LIGHT!" The first fireball exploded against a shining shield of white light. Gritting her teeth, Siren tossed a second sphere of flame and leapt into the air, preparing a barrage. A beam of focused light fired through and dispersed her first attack. A second beam struck Eleanor in the hand, sending her into a mid-air spin and a shot of pain through her arm. She tumbled to the ground with a yelp. Dr. Light dusted his hands and strolled towards a toppled armored truck. "Now if nobody minds, I'll be taking the gold."

"_I_ mind," Raven cut him off. "Azarath, Metrion, Zin-Ah!" A beam of light shattered her concentration and sent her sprawling along the ground.

"Bit of advice:" The light obsessed madman powered two orbs of light in his hands. "Find shorter magic words." Siren forced herself to her feet. In a flash of violet she was beside the doctor preparing a side kick. A blinding white flash later and she was crashing through a store window across the street. When she had recovered her eyesight, she thought she had been thrown back in time. The store was filled with furniture, well-preserved chairs, tables and lamps of the style she had grown up with and some older. She looked to what remained of the signage on the window.

"Antiques," She grumbled. "Way to make me feel old..." Siren clambered to her feet once again and made it to the window just in time to see Raven blasted across the street once again with Dr. Light advancing on her.

"Don't come any closer..." The goth warned from the ground, facing away from the villain.

"What's the matter?" He taunted. "Afraid of the LIGHT!" He really, really, should not have said that. Raven whirled towards him with a snarl, but it seemed to Eleanor that this was no Raven she could recognize. Her eyes burned like hellish embers. The folds of her cloak seem to expand and swallow her body, leaving only shadows. Tendrils of pure blackness slithered from the shadows and whipped about hungrily towards the villain. Siren could only stare, a feeling of horror welling in her chest. Dr. Light's expression went from jovial arrogance to abject terror in the blink of an eye.

"No, NO!" He shrieked as the tendrils wrapped around his limbs. His suit sparked and hissed where they touched. "My suit! What're you-" His screams only increased in volume as they dragged him back to the darkness of the billowing cloak. "Stop! You win! I surrender!" His voice broke as he disappeared beneath the hem of the cloak. "I surrender! Nooooo!" His screams became incoherent. Then they ceased altogether.

"_**What's the matter? Afraid of the dark?**_" The distorted voice issued from Raven's mouth with mocking tones. It sounded like Raven, but mixed with something far more sinister. It was that or the devilish grin that accompanied it that finally spurred Siren to action. She appeared behind her friend in a flash and seized her shoulder.

"Raven, he's beaten, that's enough!" No sooner had the words left her mouth than Raven turned and Siren received the full force of the that wrathful gaze. Her eyes glowed the color of blood, filled with anger and unreasoning hatred. Eleanor could feel it rolling off of the goth in waves... And then it was gone. With a gasp, Raven's dark violet eyes returned filled with shame and regret. There were no more tendrils and her cloak's movement subsided. She moved aside without a word, slipping away from Siren's grip. In her wake lay the fallen Dr. Light. He was lying on his side in the fetal position, trembling like a leaf. His suit was discolored and corroded as if it had been dipped in a vat of acid and his face was ashen. The villain hugged himself and stared into space with a haunted expression. Robin and Starfire, having recovered from the villain's earlier attacks, knelt beside him.

"It's okay, you're going to be alright." Robin told him, but Dr. Light did not seem to hear him.

"S-so dark, make it stop, make it stop..." He mumbled.

"My god... Raven..." Eleanor began, reaching out to her friend. The goth turned away.

"Dude!" Beast Boy cried out at the sight of the villain. "Raven, what did you do!?" Raven rounded on him baring her teeth with a growl in her throat. For a moment her eyes were that bloody shade of red again. Beast Boy yelped and fell to the ground in fright. Raven turned away and stalked into the shadows of the alleyway.

"Leave. Me. Alone." She said firmly. Then she vanished. The Titans looked after her and Eleanor wrung her hands in worry.

"What's her deal?" Beast Boy complained, only to earn an incredulous look from Siren. "What?"

* * *

Nobody saw Raven for the rest of the night and everyone obeyed her earlier demand not to disturb her. It was morning when she finally emerged from her room and made her way to the living room. The Titans were assembled for breakfast and Cyborg was complaining about being served tofu once again. She made a beeline for the counter and began pouring herself a cup of tea.

"Hey Raven, want breakfast?" Robin asked good-naturedly. Siren watched the goth closely. Last night she had seen something more than she had ever seen in the girl. That disturbed and worried her.

"It's good!" Beast Boy offered up his frying pan proudly. "Tofu bakey, rise and wakey!"

"Herbal tea." She spoke clearly without looking up. The green shapeshifter deflated somewhat, but was not deterred.

"Come on, just a little bite! You could use some food after the way you cooked Dr. Li-"

"_**No!**_" Raven snarled at him. Her eyes turned that disturbing shade of red again. Without warning, the tofu in Beast Boy's pan exploded up at the ceiling, showering him in pieces of it. Raven walked out the door without another word. Beast Boy gawked after her even after the door closed.

"...Maybe you should go apologize." Robin suggested. The shapeshifter gave him an incredulous look.

"Me!? I'm not the one that turned breakfast into a battlefield!"

"Are you serious?" Siren shook her head with a hint of anger. "After what happened last night, you thought it a good idea _now_, to antagonize her?"

"I was _trying_ to be nice," Beast Boy waved his arms, frustrated. "But no matter how hard I try, she still treats me like tofu eggs!" He pointed at the frying pan for emphasis. "You know she's never laughed at even one of my jokes!?"

"At least she listens," Cyborg offered from the kitchen, where he was beginning to clean the dishes. "I just sort of tune you out..." That drew him a dirty look from his green friend.

"Raven is... Complicated." Starfire offered her two cents. "There is much about her we are not meant to understand."

"Bollocks," Everyone looked at Eleanor, who seemed surprised that she had spoken aloud. "Er, I mean, I know Raven. She may seem gloomy and sarcastic, but she'd never lash out maliciously," The scenes from the previous night played out in her mind's eye. "Well... Something's wrong!" She blurted out in frustration.

"Raven's always kept her issues to herself." Robin shrugged. "But she's our friend. If she wants to be alone, we should just give her space and trust her." Siren bit back a retort. It was clear the boy wonder would be of no help at all.

* * *

"*sigh* I'm worried."

"Quit doing this to yourself, Siren." Cyborg told her as they walked down the hall in the direction of Raven's room. "Raven'll sort herself out, she always does."

"But..." She stopped, flustered. "But doesn't being a friend mean you help with each other's problems?"

"Sometimes people just have to deal with their own stuff, or maybe this is just normal for Raven." Siren came to a stop, turned towards him and folded her arms.

"Oh? Tentacles and glowing red eyes are normal now are they?"

"I have a glowing red eye,"

"You know what I mean!" She snapped.

"Okay, I'm not going to pretend that wasn't weird." Cyborg continued down the hall. After a moment, Eleanor trailed after him. "But I know I don't need to tell you how relative weird is around here. Just a few weeks ago we were fighting those Thunder and Lightning brothers, and then there was that giant fire thing..."

"I remember, they went on a tear, Robin saw Slade, and Starfire called Beast Boy a Klorbagarblenelk." Siren remembered the strange young elemental brothers. They'd given her a few bruises and electrical burns, but their parting was on good terms. She used to seek scientific explanations to all the supernatural events they encountered, but a few months around Raven convinced her that there was more than science at work in the world. It was Slade and his evident desire to destroy the city that had Robin concerned. "But this is different! This is Raven! Wait, why are you heading to her room if you're not going to help anyway?"

"Oh, I'm just gonna make sure BB apologizes." The reached a corner and Cyborg peaked around it. "There he is now!" He lowered his voice. Siren leaned out beyond the metal man's bulky form to see for herself. The shapeshifter shifted uncomfortably in front of Raven's door, apparently trying to work up his courage.

"Do you think he'll go through with?" She matched his volume.

"I think he might," They watched him in silence for several moments as the shapeshifter started taking deep breaths. The duo looked at each other.

"He's not," They said at the same time. Siren sighed and stepped out into the hall.

"Alright, I'll take care of this."

"You sure?"

"I want to talk with Raven anyway, and make sure Beast Boy doesn't spoil her mood anymore than he already has."

"Yeah, good luck with that." Cyborg snorted doubtfully. He turned back the way of the living room and began down the corridor. As Siren approached, Beast Boy lift a hand tentatively and, bracing himself as if expecting an explosion, grazed the door just barely with his knuckles.

"Oh well, nobody's home!" He did an about-face and promptly froze mid stride at the sight of Siren standing in front of him, tapping her foot with her arms crossed. "Ah!"

"And just where do you think _you're_ going?" She gave him a hard look and the shapeshifter gulped.

"I was just, uh, er..."

"Knock _harder,_" Siren said firmly. Sweating, Beast Boy turned around and raised his arm hesitantly. He rapped on the door twice, then spun around again.

"Nobody home! Too bad, try later!" He tried to stroll past her with a nervous laugh but yelped as the former Little Sister caught him by the collar. She rolled her eyes.

"Oh for heaven's sake..." She marched up to Raven's door leading the reluctant shapeshifter and knocked twice, hard and loud.

"Raven?" Siren listened but heard nothing. Beast Boy let out a breath he had been holding

"See? She's really not there." Eleanor pinch the bridge of her nose and took a calming breath. "Let's just try later, okay? Hehe..." She gritted her teeth and raised her arm to knock one more time. Maybe it was concern for her friend, or just annoyance at Beast Boy. Either way, she used just a _bit_ more force than she meant to.

The door creaked, then fell inward with a loud crash.

"Um..." Siren blinked down at the door. "Oh dear..."

"Now we both need to apologize..." Beast Boy said flatly. Siren swallowed.

"Raven? Are you in here?" No answer.

"She's not here, let's take a look around..." Beast Boy walked past her into the room. She grabbed his arm as he went by.

"What do you think you're doing?!" She hissed. "I hang out with Raven more than the rest of the team and she doesn't even let _me_ in here!"

"Exactly!" He shook herself loose from her grip. "This is our big chance to find out more about her, come on!" Siren found a feeling of curiosity overtaking her. Raven didn't talk about herself much. Much as Eleanor respected her privacy, the possibility of insight into the intentionally mysterious girl was tantalizing.

"We should really leave..." She said half heartedly. This felt like a violation. Raven's decor was certainly... eye catching, however. She could see ornate bookcases filled with tomes whose titles were in unknown languages. The dim lighting cast the small gothic statues dotting the room in a sinister light, along with other ornaments she couldn't identify.

"Looks like Halloween came early," Beast Boy noted and picked up a strangely shaped mirror from a table. "Hey, check out this beauty mirror! Can you imagine Raven sprucing? 'Ah! is that a zit?!'" Siren bit her lip, looking around was one thing, but touching Raven's stuff was another. She was being a hypocrit, considering all the things she kept to herself.

"That's enough," Siren's better nature finally won out over her curiosity. She turned towards the door. "We're leaving now."

"Waaaah!" Beast Boy's scream pulled Siren back around.

"What the?!" A giant red spectral hand held the flailing shapeshifter in its grip. It appeared to be trying to drag him into the mirror, which had fallen onto the ground. "Beast Boy!" Siren leapt after the shrieking green boy and managed to grab his foot... Only to be pulled right off her feet and dragged with him. There was a flash of red and suddenly they were free falling through a tunnel of the same red black energy, both screaming now as they tumbled. It was more than the feeling of falling. First she felt a wave of creeping cold move through her body, moving outward from her chest to every extremity. Eleanor shivered and was numb. Then a wave of ferocious heat coursed through every vein and artery. Eleanor arched her back with a gasp and as every nerve in her body burned. Then she was neither hot nor cold, falling, but unable to tell down from up. Her senses came back to her in a rush.

"Oof!" Siren exhaled sharply when she landed on her stomach. Disoriented, she pushed herself up with one hand. What she saw shocked her almost as much as the journey. Siren was on a slab of stone, one that was apparently adrift in the night sky, only the stars were all red. More stone islands could be seen, dotted with dead trees. It took her a moment to remember that she had not come alone. "Beast Boy?" She breathed.

"Here..." A muffled groan came from beneath her.

"Oh!" She hastily got off the shapeshifter's back and got to her feet. "Are you alright?"

"Ugh, yeah, I'm good." When he stood, he looked around. "Woah... Dude! Where are we!?"

"I haven't the faintest idea..." Siren opened a panel on the back of her gauntlet to reveal a small touch screen, one of the many improvements over her old suit. It wasn't much help. "This makes no sense at all."

"Well duh." Beast Boy began pacing impatiently around their floating stone island, staring around at the eerie scenery.

"No," She sighed in exasperation. "I mean the GPS tracker says we're still in the tower."

"Riiiight, so how do we get back?" Eleanor felt her frustration mounting.

"How should I know-" She began to snap at him, but a rumbling cut her off. The floating stones around them shifted, moving towards them. Just when Siren began to fear they would collide, they slowed and interlocked. Before she knew it, there was a bridge of stone laid out before them. Beast Boy had stopped his pacing and stared along with her. Finally, she found her voice again. "Well... That's convenient."

"If sticking us in weirdsville is Raven's idea of a prank, I am not laughing." Beast Boy said as they began cautiously walking down the path.

"A prank? This is your fault!"

"My fault?! I didn't want to go to her room in the first place!"

"And then you insisted on doing so!"

"Hey, you came in too!"

"You just had to pick up the mirror, didn't you?"

"Who boobytraps a mirror?!"

"That's not the point," Eleanor sighed. "Raven has never let anyone in her room. That was one line crossed, but going through her things? What were you thinking?!"

"I was thinking that we could finally learn more about her!" Beast Boy threw his hands in the air. "How are we supposed to even trust her when she does stuff like last night and doesn't tell us anything?!"

"You don't gain trust by poking around behind someone's back, Beast Boy." Siren shook her head. "You-"

"_Turn back..._" The Titans stopped dead.

"_Turn back..._" Up ahead there was an arch of stone above the path. Tiny black birds with big red eyes sat atop it, each chirping the same words in turn.

"_Turn back..._"

"Well that's not ominous..." Siren muttered. Beast Boy, however, beamed.

"Sweet! I bet these guys can tell us how to get out of here."

"They definitely seem to _want_ us out of here," Siren spoke dryly. "What part of 'creepy talking bird' seems benign to you?"

"Hellooo, remember me? I'm Beast Boy!" He gave her a thumbs up. "I'd know if they were dangerous!" He turned towards the birds with a grin. "Hey there little guys, we were just wondering-" He stopped short when he saw that the tiny big eyed creatures had vanished from the ledge.

"_Turn back..._" Beast Boy jumped at the little bird voice. The strange creatures had silently moved to the ground right in front of him.

"_Turn back..._" And then the birds changed. Their wings and beaks grew longer, the latter filling with tiny razor fangs. Their eyes split, and they glared with their slitted four eyes at the shapeshifter. They hissed viciously.

"Ah!" Beast Boy turned tail and ran as the clearly hostile birds flew after him with snapping beaks. Siren barely stepped to the side in time to keep him from bowling her over... And received a face full of black feathers for her trouble. The birds snapped and clawed at her. She lost her balance and fell to the ground, desperately shielding her face with her hands.

"Ow! Get off! Get off!" She swatted blindly at the creatures. When her hands began to burn with Incinerate!, that seemed to do the trick and she was able to get to her feet. Siren stumbled and then ran away from the pursuing avian demons. When she reached Beast Boy, he was swatting at his own attackers. Then he turned swept by her again, running in the opposite direction as an ostrich to outrun them. "Blasted pests! Wait up!" Siren called after him, attempting to outrun the birds herself with long loping strides of her long legs. After getting some distance, the shapeshifter resumed human form and spun around to face their attackers.

"Come on!" He shouted at Siren before taking the form of a llama. Grasping his meaning, Eleanor leapt into the air and landed with both feet on his back as if she were surfing.

"Hah!" She summoned fire to one hand and lightning to the other, letting loose with both at the cloud of oncoming birds. They scattered and weaved around her attack as Beast Boy trotted towards them. He grunted in discomfort as Siren's metal boots dug into his back. His idea had been for her to ride on his back, not stand on it. "Woah!" Siren ducked a dive bombing raven and quickly fired a bolt of lightning after it. Another scratched at her leg as it passed by and she directed both hands straight down. "Stay still!" Both strikes missed, pounding into the rock path with an burst of fire and dust. Beast Boy hopped away from the small explosion and twisted his llama head around to snort at her indignantly. Then they both heard an ominous crumbling noise beneath them.

"Whoops..." The path gave way beneath their feet. Siren stifled the urge to scream and grabbed onto the edge as she fell with one hand. Her arm nearly wrenched out of its socket as she caught Beast Boy with the other, he seemed stunned and had not retaken human form. She gritted her teeth against the pain and tried to pull him up, away from the apparently bottomless abyss.

"Hey guys, what's up?" Eleanor blinked and was shocked to see Raven, standing on the underside of the path and waving at them with a grin. Strangely even more off-putting than her defiance of gravity, she was wearing... hot pink.

"Raven? How are-? You're-!" She spluttered. "What!?" Then gravity reversed itself. Siren had enough time to look up, now down, at what was now the ground before she fell onto it face first. Beast Boy, mercifully in human form, landed bodily on her back. "Ugh... I hate karma." Raven laughed with carefree abandon, as if the situation wasn't disturbing enough. Beast Boy got to his feet first. He was just as flustered as she.

"Raven! Where'd you-? How did-? What..." Then, finally noticing her clothing. "_Why are you wearing pink?_"

"Becaaauuse its my favorite color?" She smiled brightly at them. Beast Boy gave her a befuddled look while Siren got up from the ground.

"It is?"

"More to the point," Siren cleared her throat. "We're very sorry about coming into your room... But, please, how do we get out of here?"

"The forbidden door," Pink Raven said conversationally, indicating the path behind her. "Its the only way out, but you don't want to go there, not now." Siren and Beast Boy exchanged glances.

"Uh, yeah we do!" Beast Boy said.

"Are you feeling alright?" Eleanor added with a not of concern.

"Right as rain!" The pink cloaked girl grinned. "But don't say I didn't warn ya!" She turned around and began running with her arms outstretched as if she were trying to glide, making fake airplane noises with her mouth as she weaved down the path.

"Alright…" Siren took a breath as they started to follow her. "When did I miss Raven regressing into a five year old?"

"Forget that!" The green shapeshifter put in. "When did Raven start doing 'happy'?" They stepped through an arch of stone and everything changed. Gone was the endless abyss of red stars, replaced by a yellow sky and pink clouds. The path in front of them wove through a rolling countryside of bright pastel colors, vibrant pink trees and grass of alternating shades of violet and orange. Even the air smelled… fruity.

"Now, who… where?" Eleanor said weakly, entirely bewildered for the second time in recent memory. Then things took a turn for the weird… weirder, anyway. A giant strawberry the size of her head floated lazily through the air across their path. "I'm just going to stop trying to make sense of this now."

"I think this is where air fresheners come from." Beast Boy tried to lighten the mood.

"Hahaha," Raven, in her full pink cloaked glory, was suddenly right beside them. "Good one!" Both her teammates gave her bug eyed looks.

"Since when do you laugh at my jokes?" The shapeshifter said in astonishment.

"I've always thought you were funny, BB!" The pink Raven spun in place on the ball of one foot, giggling. "But hey! Don't feel left out, your funny sometimes too Siren!" She stopped and hopped over to them, clamping a hand on Siren's shoulder. At the moment of physical contact, something strange happened.

* * *

_"__Come and see the latest production by Rapture's very own premier master of the arts, Sander Cohen! Tickets are going fast, so be quick before you miss the show of a lifetime!__" An enthusiastic voice boomed over the city's PA system. Five year old Eleanor paid little attention, she'd seen the name on some posters featuring an effete man dressed in various flamboyant outfits. He looked funny, but today was much more important than just 'funny'. Today was the day Eleanor Lamb visited Arcadia. It was a lot of trouble, sneaking out of the house and going to a whole new part of the city, but from what Amir had told her, it would be worth it. Eleanor raced by a group of adults, knocking her shoulder against one of their legs as she went._

_"Hey kid! Whatchit!" A male voice shouted at her angrily, but she didn't slow her pace until she was at the large door upon which gleamed the word 'Arcadia'. Eleanor held her breath as it slowly opened, leaning over impatiently to see beneath the rising door. It was the prettiest thing she had ever seen. The whole space was filled with light from above. A green carpet with strange bristley things sticking out of it covered everything. Grass! She realized. She had heard about grass! It was supposed to grow everywhere on the surface. Out of the grass sprung great big dark brownish grey things with many limbs and green stuff on them. Trees! she had seen pictures of trees! A stream of water flowed through the artificial hills and landscape. Eleanor wandered along it in a giddy daze. The most beautiful things of all were the flowers. She had seen flowers before, plucked, in vases, in jars, in bouquets. Never had she seen them growing, and so many colors! She got on her knees to examine them with wide eyed fascination. In the back of her mind, Eleanor wondered if she could convince her mother to bring her here._

* * *

The pink Raven took a step back from Siren, looked at her with wide eyes and her mouth open with pleasant surprise. "Awesome! What was that?" She laughed. Beast Boy looked between the two, confused.

"What was what?" He scratched his head. Eleanor blinked, put off balance. The memory had blinked by in an instant. Raven had seen it, but how? Something strange was going on. Well, more strange things were going on. The list was getting a bit long at this point. Before she could form a question, Raven was skipping, actually skipping, down the path. Siren looked at Beast Boy, who still looked confused, and sighed.

"Just go with it," And off they went.

* * *

Raven was meditating on the rooftop, doing her best to calm herself and put her rage back in its place. Her emotions had been chaotic ever since she had just barely reined herself in while fighting Dr. Light. Her attempts to center herself that night had proven in vain and all she got for her trouble was a lost sleep.

"Hey Raven, we were just by your room and your door's been knocked down." She heard Robin approaching and felt more than heard Starfire with him. Suddenly she felt an emotion sweep through her unbidden, hilarity and excitement. Then confused images flickered through her mind's eye. Flowers, a canopy of leaves beneath glass, running by a group of people dressed in old fashion clothing and then a feeling, a child's glee. She opened her mouth to say something to Robin.

"Hahahaha!" She clamped her hands over her mouth to stifle the hysterical laughter. Both Robin and Starfire had backed away from her in alarm, sporting highly shocked and disturbed expressions. Her face grew warm with embarrassment. Raven quickly stood.

"I'm going to my room," She walked away with the other two Titans still staring at her, troubled. The outburst was bad enough, she was clearly no closer to centering herself. The sorceress had no explanation for the images, however. That had been bizarre, but with a nagging sense of familiarity. What was it...

She was no closer to an answer by the time she got to her room and saw that Robin had been right about the door. She put it in its proper place with a small exertion of her powers. Raven mulled over the images once more, or rather the emotions attached to them. It was a child, she knew that much, but the feelings of glee seemed... disproportionate, like such simple things were new and exciting to her. Raven lacked context. Then her blood ran cold. Her meditation mirror was not where she left it, but lying on the ground in the middle of the room. "Oh no..."

* * *

"She ditched us!" Beast Boy ranted. Siren let him, her thoughts were elsewhere. "I can't believe she ditched us! When I find her it's not going to be pretty-" Just at that moment, they walked through another stone arch and the world hanged again. Once more, they were standing in the abyss of red stars and the barren rocky path.

"Not again!" Siren put her face in her hands despairingly. "What I'd give for someone to just tell me what's going o-Ah!" She and Beast Boy both started violently as Raven suddenly appeared in front of them. Her robe was grey this time. Rather than the off-puttingly chipper grin she had earlier, Raven now had a more familiar dour expression.

"Where were you!?" Beast Boy shouted angrily. "Shopping for robes!?" Unexpectedly, Raven cowered before him. She looked up at them with big watery eyes and started to cry. The green boy was just as taken aback by this reaction as Siren was. "Woah! Easy, I didn't mean it." He placed a hand on her shoulder and she sniffed away the tears. Siren almost reached out for her too, but she remembered what had happened earlier and restrained the impulse.

"Are you alright?" She asked her goth friend gently. Still sniffling, Raven turned towards her.

"Y-yeah,"

"Do you think you can show us the way out, the 'forbidden gate'?" Eleanor was speaking as one might to an upset child, but at the moment that was what Raven reminded her of, or whatever strange version of her friend this was. Grey Raven pointed hesitantly to a large island of rock at the end of the path.

"It's there..." Raven said quietly. Siren sighed in relief, then offered an encouraging smile to the goth.

"Hey, you did good, thanks." Resisting the any impulse to comfort her friend by touch, Eleanor stood awkwardly for a moment. Then turned toward the gate and started walking. She had gone no more than five steps when a massive wall of grey stone burst out of the ground in front of her to a height of twenty feet. Even as Siren stumbled back, more walls came up around them. Then she felt her forearm brush Raven's shoulder.

* * *

_"Damn you... Whore!" The manic shouting nearly made Lisa give out a terrified sob. She hugged herself behind their overturned couch, desperately clutching rosary beads. Religious icons were officially banned in Rapture, not that it stopped people from smuggling in bibles, but Lisa had never been religious. They had belonged to her mother and seen her through the hard life of a penniless immigrant. There was a loud crash behind her as if Johnny had tossed the refrigerator across the room. He probably had. Lisa gripped the beads more tightly and prayed silently for the first time in years._

_"You think because you're some bigshot dancer you can just..." Another cacophonous crash, this one closer. "Say no to me, HUH?!" There were several more clatters, he was flinging around the furniture. Then silence reigned. A part of her dared to believe that he had simply left and she was alone, but her limbs refused to budge. She was so trembling with terror. Johnny had been nice once, not a perfect guy, not a bad one. He had been a friend. ADAM swallowed him whole. Then she heard him began to talk to himself with a sluring voice. "The lies... the money... the lies... the money... I must be hearing things. Things... and rings... and things..." Then, in a barely intelligible stage whisper. "What's that? Oh what's that..." Suddenly a hideous face face appeared over her, leering cruelly down at her. Once plain features were covered with deformed folds of reddish sagging flesh, one eye covered entirely. His cracked lips twisted into a snarl, he was missing about half his teeth. "Found you!" A misshapen hand reach down towards her and she screamed and she screamed and she screamed..._

* * *

Grey Raven fell to the ground in a ball, sobbing uncontrollably. Siren was paralyzed. The powerful emotions of the memory had affected her as well, but she was terrified most of what would happen if she touched Raven again. This Raven was much more fragile than normal. Another memory like that and she might never recover.

"Dude! What the heck!" Beast Boy shouted in surprise, looking between the two girls. Resolved, Siren knelt down beside Raven.

"Raven, I don't know what's going on, but I need you to calm down. That was just an illusion, it can't hurt you." She assured the crying girl. After some time, her sobs began to subside and she got to her feet shakily. Her eyes were red and puffy. "Alright," Siren gave what she hoped was a reassuring smile. "Now what's all this?" She indicated the stone walls.

"I-it's a maze." Grey Raven hugged herself tightly. Beast Boy transformed into a bird and flew up in an attempt to get over the wall. Just as he reached the height of a the wall, the shapeshifter was abruptly caught in an invisible electrifying field.

"Aaaaaah!" His avian form spasmed in the air and fell back to earth with a thump. Siren ground her teeth nervously.

"A maze... Well forget it, I can teleport!" Eleanor vanished in a flash of violet light... Only to reappear an instant later in the exact same spot looking perplexed. "Okay, I might have guessed that would happen..."

"You can't get out, you have to go through." Grey Raven said quietly. "I can show you the way, but when we get to the end, you won't like me anymore..." She glanced over her shoulder at Beast Boy. "He already doesn't like me." The shapeshifter looked flustered.

"Oh come on, that's not..." But Raven was already gone, walking into the maze ahead of them. "Gee Raven, moody much?"

"Something's radically changing her emotions," Siren said, watching the cloaked girl ahead of them. She glanced at Beast Boy. "I'll be damned I know what or how though. I wasn't planning on stepping through the looking glass this morning, literally or figuratively." He gave her a confused look. "Lewis Carroll?" She tried.

"Who?"

"Just... Never mind, let's go before we lose Raven again."

* * *

"...And remember the time I called you an immature pinhead, Beast Boy? I'm sorry about that too. And the time I yanked that stuff out your hair without warning, Siren-". Her companions interrupted her with dual exasperated groans.

"For the hundredth millionth time..." Beast Boy began.

"We forgive you!" They said in unison. The entirety of their journey through the twists and turns of the maze had gone on like this. Raven had dragged up every sarcastic comment, annoyed snap and even vaguely offensive act she had ever directed at either of them and apologized profusely. Granted, Beast Boy's list was considerably longer. It was beginning to wear thin. Raven looked at them uncertainly and then touched the wall in front of them. The wall split down the middle and both sides slid away to reveal their destination to be much closer than before. The maze's exit was flanked by a pair of towering statues, robed figures, one smiling and one frowning, both with four slitted eyes.

"That's the end," She said quietly.

"Sweet!" Beast Boy grinned.

"Great work, Raven." Siren sighed in relief and started to walk towards the exit. "Once we get back, we'll try to figure out what's happening to you." As if in response to her words, the eyes of the statues pulsed red. Siren stopped and tensed, a sinking feeling in her gut. The statues detached themselves from the walls and fused together in the center of the path. The now four armed statue stretched out two of its arms, large broadswords appearing in its grip with flashes of red light.

"No way..." Beast Boy stared. Siren groaned and raised her arms, lightning crackling along them. Her head began to ache. She desperately wanted to have a word or two with Raven about why she had a portal to such a bizarre and hard to leave place in her room right then.

"I told you you wouldn't like me when we got here..." Raven mumbled behind them, and when Siren looked she had disappeared. The statue advance at them, swords raised. Beast Boy leapt into the air as a hawk and began soaring for altitude. Siren didn't want to try teleporting if it wouldn't work, and so she backed away from the statue, hopping away from its wide sword swipes. She cast bolts of lightning at the animated stone. They struck with brilliant flashes and thunderous cracks, but failed to faze the creature. Beast Boy swooped down to attack its glowing eyes, but a stone hand shot up and caught him in the air.

"Ah!" Beast Boy retook human form and struggled against the statue's grip. Siren took careful aim and fired a bolt at the stone hand. It seemed to do the trick. The hand loosened just enough for the shapeshifter to slip free and tumble to the ground, no worse for wear if a little singed. Two pairs of red eyes leered down at her maliciously.

"Yo! Eight eyes!" Suddenly, Raven appeared out of the blue and streaked through the air. "Hiya!" She delivered a dropkick that knocked the statue to the ground and landed nimbly on the ground. Siren noticed that her cloak was green now. "Wahoo! In you faces!" She taunted. The statue got up and unleashed a flurry of attacks on her, but she easily dodged each and every one. Raven leapt into the air above the stone giant's head and brought down two fingers upon its crown, slicing the entire statue in half easily. The two haves crashed to the ground separately and were still. Siren and Beast boy were beyond stunned. Raven fist pumped. "Hi fives, come on!" She stretched her hands out towards them with a wider grin than Eleanor thought possible.

"What is your deal?!" Beast Boy exploded. "First you nuke breakfast, then finally laugh at my jokes, then you're all weepy and now you're a marine?! Make up your mind, who are you?!" And suddenly there were three of them, one in a grey cloak, one in green, and one in pink. Three Ravens.

"I'm Raven," They all said in unison. Beast Boy went bug eyed, then fainted.

"Different emotional states," Siren murmured to herself, she furrowed her brow. "Fearful, happy, brave... Oh my god, we're not really in a place are we?"

"No you're not," The three Ravens evaporated abruptly and in their place stood the real deal, complete with blue cloak. She did not look happy. "And I want you both out." She rounded on Beast Boy, just recovering from his earlier faint. "That mirror you found is for meditation, its a portal to my MIND, NOT A TOY!" She ground out between gritted teeth. Beast Boy laughed nervously.

"Hehe, my bad." He tugged at his collar uncomfortably. Siren had a lot more to ask, but just then the air was filled with the sound of squawking ravens as they took flight from dead trees. Raven's face took on a dire cast.

"You need to leave," She told them, "Now."

"Wait just one moment!" Siren said in frustration. "What's going on?"

"Last night, something got loose. Something bad..."

"Oh no you don't," The shapeshifter jabbed a finger in her face. "I've had it with this whole mystery girl routine! You're going to tell us _exactly_ what we're dealing with here!" Raven didn't have to respond. A great mass of shadows arose in the distance, an ominous cocoon. Out of the shadow came a giant the size of a large building. Apparently male in form, it was dressed in little more than a loincloth with crimson skin, a mane of white hair and a frightful face dominated by four burning eyes and a mouth of fangs.

"_**Hatred shall rule!**_"

"Let's just say I have issues with my father," Raven said as they all stared up at the collosus. It was by far the largest being Siren had ever seen, even if it was a mental construction. As much horror as Rapture had seen, demonic giants were... New.

"Go!" Raven hissed. Beast Boy heard her and made a run for the gate. Siren stayed were she was. "I told you to go!"

"I'm going to help you whether you like it or not!" Siren retorted and slid into a ready stance. The giant's eyes pulsed and fired a beam of fiery orange energy at their feet. The force of the blast sent them both sprawling. When Siren regained her feet, she saw that they were standing right in front of the exit portal, a vortex of red energy. Raven's eyes turned white and she raised her hands.

"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!" A barrier of dark energy rose around them and was immediately pounded by a blast from Rage. "Get out of my mind... Now!" Raven said with difficulty.

"And leave you alone with that?" Beast Boy asked incredulously. He had stopped short of the portal it seemed.

"I've already given you my answer!" Siren balled her fists.

"It's my problem, I'll deal with it," Raven insisted. "If I lose, you'll be stuck in here forever." Rage's onslaught subsided and she allowed the shield to fall. Without warning she whipped around and shoved a hand wrapped in dark energy in their direction. "Go!" An invisible force slammed into Siren and she found feet sliding along the ground , stopping just shy of the portal and nearly losing her balance in the process. Raven began to levitate through the air, firing bursts of dark energy at the giant and weaving around his attempts to swat her. She appeared to have the upper hand until a pulse of energy from the red being's eyes struck her dead on. Raven grunted in pain and fell into its waiting palm, stunned.

"_**Rage shall consume you,**_" The giant intoned

"Let me make myself _perfectly _clear," The giant's attention was drawn to a small cliff beside him. There stood Siren, lightning crackling along both her arms, building in intensity. "It just isn't in my nature to give up on someone I care about." The lightning continued to build, and then Siren released it as a single brilliant bolt of white lightning. The giant was struck directly in the face and reared back in agony, tumbling to t. Raven fell from its grip. Acting on blind instinct, Siren teleported from her perch to intercept her friend's falling form. They both fell to the ground. That's when the memories started.

It wasn't like before. There was no time to linger on any single memory, it was a stream. Siren could only catch glimpses of them: Andrew Ryan giving a speech, several people watching tensely as a Big Daddy and its charge meandered through the street, a man in a diving suit picked a slug off the sea floor, a splice sticking to the ceiling like a fly and flinging blades into a with homocidal glee.

"Stop!" Raven gasped. The memories stopped. Eleanor was suddenly very aware that their faces were close, quite close. Raven got red in the face and quickly stood, rubbing her temples.

"Raven," Siren said awkwardly. "What just happened?" Raven's face took on a deeper shade of red. "Those memories..."

"Oh," She dropped her arms and gave Eleanor a tired look. "I'm unsure... It's like your memories are unstable, like you have more than you should... And when your here..."

"Inside your mind," Siren looked at her hands. Her many foreign memories we're stored in her ADAM, her very genetic code. When she had touched Raven's facets... Eleanor suddenly paled and looked up at the sorceress in alarm. "Are you saying they bled over?" Raven nodded wearily.

"Images, bits and pieces," Siren wanted to know what precisely her friend had seen, but at that moment Beast Boy ran up to them.

"I really don't know what you guys are talking about, but big red over there isn't done yet!" The giant got to his feet and let loose more energy beams. Siren teleported out of their path while Raven and Beast Boy took to the air, harassing him with dark energy and pterodactyl claws respectively. The energy beams continued to bombard the landscape. Eleanor slipped in and out of material reality in violet flashes, avoiding them and firing off bolts of lightning. Each escape was a close call. Eventually, one was too close.

"Agh!" Siren cried as one beam struck her leg the moment she rematerialized. A searing agony filled her entire leg and she lost her footing. She could feel the wound healing even as she went down, but the pain lingered. The red giant glared down at her, it's eyes glowing bright for another blast. Suddenly it roared in pain as Beast Boy dragged it backwards by the hair in his pterodactyl form. He teetered, and then tumbled to the ground with a feral growl. Raven touched down next to Siren with a look of concern.

"Are you okay?" She offered a hand. Siren took it gratefully.

"I'll be fine in a moment," She grimaced at the fading pain as she stood. Beast Boy slowed to a hover nearby.

"_**RRAAAH!**_" The red giant erupted from th dust cloud of its previous fall, eyes flaring. Still holding onto her friend's hand, Siren pulled her with her away from the explosion as the beam struck the ground where they had been standing. They slipped below a ledge and waited. Beast Boy slid down beside them. They heard the demonic giant take earthshaking steps in its search for them. Eventually they began to fade into the distance.

"This isn't going to work!" Raven sighed. "Even with your help, he's too powerful."

"Then we'll need more power," Siren peaked over the edge at the giant's retreating back and met Raven's gaze. "What about your other facets? If that one can fight against you, surely you can get the others to fight beside you."

"Yeah, the green one kinda kicked butt." Beast Boy threw in, but Raven was shaking her head.

"It still wouldn't be enough, none of my other sides have the power we need!"

"Maybe not alone, but what about together?" The shapeshifter argued. "They're all part of who you are, right?" Siren tensed, the earthshaking footsteps were getting louder now. Two explosions rocked the ground beneath them as Rage blasted the landscape at random. She met Raven's gaze again.

"Don't worry, we'll distract him! You gather yourself." Raven couldn't help but let a smile tug at her lips. Then her face became impassive and she closed her eyes in concentration.

* * *

"You know, I think I remember some of my mother's anger management therapies if you'd like to try." Siren said lightly, then teleported away before a yellow beam reduce the stone beneath her feet to dust. She heard a loud avian cry as Beast Boy raked Rage with a pair of talons and sped away. Fortunately Rage was only hardy and powerful, not smart. Siren vanished and rematerialized on a tall cliff, summoning lightning to her hands. She could see Raven from this vantage point. Her curiosity got the better of her when the sorceress's other facets began appearing.

There were more than she expected. Aside from the ones she'd already met, there were also cloaks of orange, yellow and purple amongst others. Even as she wondered what those might be, the purple one turned towards her, winked, and blew a kiss. Eleanor nearly lost control of the energy she was building. _I think maybe I can guess that one..._ Instead of pursuing that thought further, she directed her attention to the red giant, and unleashed a bolt of lightning at its head. The beastly thing growled and swung its attention her way. She vanished before another beam of energy could hit her. Rage swatted at Beast Boy and swiped his hand out. Out of hand flew a flock of four eyes Ravens.

"Oh no, not again," Eleanor groaned. They zeroed in on her and she found herself fending them off with fire. The red giant might have finished her off then, but it suddenly had greater concerns. Another giant rose up behind him, Raven, fused with her facets, a Raven dressed in white. Dark energy wrapped around Rage's torso, binding its arms to its sides.

"_You will go back to where you belong!_"

"_**Never!**_" Rage growled, and broke the dark energy hold on him. White Raven put her hands out in front of her and projected a massive ray of dark energy at the rogue facet. Rage met it with his own beam of fiery orange. They met in the middle, both streams of energy struggling for dominance. Siren abruptly realized the attacking ravens had vanished.

"Come on Raven," She breathed at the sight of this titanic contest. "Your stronger than rage..." The orange beam surged forward. White Raven reared back and then redoubled her efforts. Rage's power was pushed further and further back until finally Rage itself was overcome. In a burst of orange-red light and dark energy the red giant vanished and in its place another of Raven's doppelgängers levitated to the ground, this one in a red cloak. She looked up at White Raven with four slitted red eyes and then disintegrated into crimson energy. The energy arked to Raven and she arched her back, melding with it. Then White Raven vanished in a cloud of dust. When the dust cleared, Raven stood as she had always been, blue cloak and all. When she began to collapse, both Siren and Beast Boy were there to catch her.

"Hey, we're here," Siren assured her as they helped her regain her balance.

"Thank you... Friends." Raven rubbed her head. The shapeshifter looked pleasantly surprised.

"Sooo... We really are friends?" He asked. Raven nodded, a small smile crossed her face. "And you really think I'm funny?" The smile faded.

"Don't push it."

* * *

When they had returned to Raven's room, they could hear a pair of familiar voices outside the door.

"Please, let us simply-"

"Raven asked us not to disturb her!" Robin grunted, apparently making a physical effort to hold the Tamaranian back.

"But she could be weeping and-"

"I don't want to bother her!" The trio of Titans glanced at each other.

"Do you want us to..." Siren began.

"Keep this to yourselves?" Raven finished. "...I would prefer it."

"Don't sweat it!" Beast Boy patted her on the back. "All that stuff is safe with us!" He mimed zipping his lips shut and Raven offered them her small smile.

"Thanks,"

* * *

_Eleanor stepped lightly through the gloom, the halls of Persephone were not well lit by even by the current standards of the city. A sharp screeching noise rang down the hall and Eleanor froze. It was not fear that stopped her. She had felt that emotion seldomly after Father had freed her. Instead she was filled with a sort of thrill, the thrill of action after so long in a gilded cage..._

_"I heard you! You... you... Pig herder!" The hoarse and deranged voice of a splicer echoed down the hall. In the dim light, all Eleanor could see of him truly was a silhouette dragging a length of broken pipe along behind him. The voice was familiar though. It called back to things she had seen and felt through her Little Sisters, horrible things. A cold rage settled itself in her stomach. Eleanor stayed close to the wall and slowly closed the distance between them. She stepped nimbly around puddles of sea water on the cracked and pitted floor._

_"Where are ya?! You little creepy, meeping, peep!" His face was visible now. He had no hair on his head. The splicer's blotchy sore spotted skin was stretched taut over the bone. His lips were tightly stretched over half rotten teeth. He wore a torn and battered business suit, decorated with what appeared to be locks of hair. Wild bloodshot eyes finally settled on Eleanor._

_"Hah! Come'ere you! I don't bit!" He laughed manically and began to charge her, dragging his pipe along the floor as he did so. Eleanor was not perturbed. She reached out and suddenly the splicer was floating in mid air. She held out her extraction needle and pulled. The splicer rocketed towards her screaming and was impaled on her needle. Blood splattered her scrap made Big Sister armor. He groaned in shocked pain._

_"The girls remember you," She said icily. "We __**all**__ do." She shoved the needle deeper. The splicer screamed, then abruptly he was silent and went limp. Eleanor cast aside the body telekinetically. Death was a mercy to mad dogs._

Raven sat bolt upright in bed with a gasp. A vase at her bedside shattered. She breathed heavily. No memory had come through to her so vividly before. She had hoped they would stop when Eleanor left her mind, but she had left more than either of them thought and that memory... She couldn't make sense of it, none of them, they were all sound, fury, and random images tagged with emotions. If she couldn't make sense of them and control these frenzied emotions, this entire episode could occur again.

"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos," Raven crossed her legs and closed her eyes. The mantra came as easily as breathing. She steadied her breathing and reined in her emotions. For a time it seemed to work. Her heart slowed and the images began to fade as she carefully managed and controlled her emotional reactions.

* * *

_Couples swayed together __to a Count Basie tune _on the space cleared between the tables of Kashimir Restaurant. Each wore a gawdy animal mask adorned with sequins and feathers, rabbits and cats were popular. It was a gathering of the finest and richest the city had to offer. Nonetheless, tension simmered beneath the surface. They were trying a little too hard, spinning too fast, grinning too forcefully, laughing too loudly. These were not happy revelers. They were trying to forget.

_Then everything was fire and explosions, people screaming and dying, blood on the walls. Machine guns rattled and mad men cackled. Above it all in neon lights: 'Happy New Year 1959'._

* * *

Raven's bedside table rocketed to the ceiling and shattered loudly. She had to raise her arms to protect herself from the rain of splinters and table fragments. This clearly was not working. She needed to find a way sort away the memories... And there was only one way she could think to do that, though she would have preferred not too.

Raven took a breath to calm herself. She knew what she needed to do. Rising from bed, she wrapped a cloak about herself like a blanket and left her room. She made her way to Siren's door and hesitated. Raven gathered herself and knocked three times. Then the sorceress waited. Just as she concluded that Siren had not heard her, the door slid open a crack and sleepy blue eyes peered out at her.

"Raven? What are you doing up?" She said sleepily.

"We need to to talk," Raven pulled her cloak close around her. "It's about your memories." The sleepiness in Siren's eyes faded instantly. She opened the door fully and stood aside to let Raven in. Siren did not sleep in her diving suit, she was wearing a white nightgown.

"What have you seen?" Siren asked without emotion. She was avoiding the sorceress's gaze. Raven hesitated to tell her of the dream. She didn't want Eleanor to think she was judging her... She didn't want to pass judgement until she knew more.

"Nothing I can make sense of," Her physical and emotional exhaustion showed in her face. "It's all chaotic images and emotions tumbling around inside my head." Eleanor's features creased in concern and frustration.

"I'm... not sure how I can help." She sat down on her bed.

"Tell me everything," Raven was upfront with it. Siren looked at her, startled. "Tell me about where you're from, tell me what happened. I need to be able to put these things in context, Eleanor! Or-"

"I know what happens when your emotions go beyond your control." Siren said quietly, staring at the floor. She looked up at the sorceress beseechingly "... But there has to be some other way!"

"Memories aren't something I can just pluck out of my head, foreign or otherwise, not without collateral damage." Raven sigh. "If I could just forget all about it, I would. For your sake as well as mine." Eleanor clasped her hands and stared at the ground again.

"Are you sure there isn't some way for you to deal with this?" The way she studiously avoided Raven's gaze sparked irritation in the sorceress.

"Eleanor! I have seen pieces of masquerade dances, little girls with glowing eyes, a woman brutally murdered, bizarre laboratories, a child smelling flowers, you killing..." Her voice died when she realized what she had revealed. Siren stiffened, but otherwise didn't react. "I... I trust you, Eleanor, but that's just the start. There are even more so fragmented I can hardly get more than impressions of them. I need your help." Eleanor took a steadying breath, then gestured for Raven to sit beside her.

"I understand," She said once Raven had seated herself. The former Little Sister finally raised her face and met Raven's gaze. "... But I want you to help me too."

"What?" Raven furrowed her brow, confused.

"What did you mean when you said that you had issues with your father?" The silence stretched on painfully before Siren spoke again. "I don't want to pry, but I saw that thing in your head... I want to be there for you, but I don't know what to think of it." Raven hesitated for some time longer, but this was the same thing she was asking of Eleanor, wasn't it?

"...I am only half human." The words hung heavy in the air between them. "My father is a powerful demon named Trigon... That's where my powers come from and that's why my rage looked the way it did." Siren bowed her head, contemplating. Raven braced herself for rejection.

"How did you come to be... here?" Siren raised her eyes. Raven wasn't sure what she was expecting to see in them: shock? fear? disgust? anger? She did not expect sadness or sympathy, but there they were, staring at her.

"It doesn't bother you?" Raven asked, perplexed. "That I'm-"

"I'm barely human myself." Eleanor spread her hands. She smiled, but it was grim. "I'm Frankenstein's monster. I wasn't born to it... but it wasn't my choice either." Raven stared at her for a moment before remembering her earlier question.

"My mother gave birth to me in a place called Azarath, its... another dimensional plane. The monks there taught me pacifism, meditation, how to control my powers and," She bit her lip. "How to counter my father's influence." Eleanor was silent. Raven couldn't read her expression, so she continued. "Eventually I started having dreams about my father and the destruction he would bring. I disobeyed my teachers and confronted him," Now they were entering the territory of painful memories. Her fist clenched involuntarily, but Eleanor placed her hand gently over Raven's.

"You don't have to..."

"Yes, I do." Raven pulled back her hand, swallowed hard and continued. "He was more powerful than I could imagine. I survived only because he saw fit to spare me. I returned to Azarath... but years later I felt his power again and fled here, to Earth. That's when I met you and the others." Eleanor turned away from the sorceress, staring across the bay at the tall city lights, processing all she had been told. The sorceress found that she was holding her breath. Then she looked Raven in the eye and took both the sorceress's hands in her own.

"Thank you, now I will tell you about me." She took a breath. "My name is Eleanor Lamb. My mother was Sofia Lamb, and I was born beneath the sea in a city called Rapture..."

* * *

**Author's Note: That ended up being a bit longer than I expected.**

**In rewatching early Teen Titans episodes for this Fic, it's come to me that being a Teen Titan seems to involve as much getting the snot kicked out of you as beating up bad guys. Eleanor has lost more fights than she's won in this Fic. Dr. Light was a surprisingly competent villain though, before Raven traumatized him. I always thought the Titan's reaction to her little episode was strangely mild. Sure she's a friend, but I sure would be concerned if a friend suddenly went 'Lovecraftian Abomination' on someone out of the blue.**

**Some of you might have noticed that I redacted some of the author's notes in the previous chapters, those where I discuss my future plans. I was hoping to get some feedback and bounce ideas off people before going forward. I have things much more ironed out now, so I thought it was high time I removed the spoilers and let you be surprised :)**

**On another note, I'm reading Bioshock: Rapture, the only novel of the franchise released. It has some small chronology errors, so I'm not sure where it stands in terms of canon. Its an interesting read for those into the series, and pre-fall Rapture. I have to say though, some of it is a little shocking and most of it is pretty dark. Did I really want to know that Tenenbaum asked sexual favors of Fontaine in return for her work (Pre- Little Sister guilt) along with her research funding? I'm not sure I did. She had him blindfold her and some sort of rape role play was involved. She is one sick puppy. And I definitely don't think I wanted to know half the things Sander Cohen got up to. He was a twisted psycho before ADAM, and not in the amusing way. His best friend Steinman too for that matter.**

**Update: I have expanded the final scene a bit. More reluctance on Eleanor's part. More difficulty with the memories and explanation of her past on Raven's. I figure the one thing she would really hold back would be the Prophecy. Part of her backstory I got from the wiki so I'm a little dubious, but it fits.**


	6. Episode 5: Deep Six

"You've never seen _Star Wars_!?" Beast Boy gaped at Siren comically.

"Erm," The former Little Sister looked to Raven for some support or explanation, but the goth merely rolled her eyes. "No?"

"Dude! Come on, no _Empire Strike's Back_? No _Return of the Jedi_? I mean forget the prequels, they never happened, but the originals are classics!" He complained.

"...I really have no idea what you're talking about."

"Alright, that's it!" He leapt off the couch. "Hold onto your diving suit, I'm about change your life forever!" With that, he veritably dived headfirst into the DVD cabinet, digging through the unorganized mess and chucking DVD cases behind him. Siren looked around helplessly.

"I did not believe stars wage war," Starfire walked over from the kitchen with a pan of pinkish brown mush. She sounded as confused as Siren felt. "To what is friend Beast Boy referring?"

"Your guess is as good as mine,"

"Alright everyone, the T-sub is ready for launch!" Cyborg announced proudly to the living room as he burst through the doors. The T-sub had been a joint pet project of the metal man's and Robin's for some time. It had been fast tracked over the last few days thanks to a peculiar incident off the coast. The news of its completion brought a feeling of apprehension to Siren however.

"Does it have the depth rating to get where we want to go?" Siren asked, standing from the couch. "The tanker?"

"With room to spare," Robin walked in from behind Cyborg. "If everyone's prepared, we can head down within the hour, ready to get wet?" Beast Boy suddenly jumped into the center of the room and puffed out his chest.

"Oh yeah, finally my time to shine!" Siren chuckled at his pose and turned towards the door. He forgot that he wasn't the only one capable of surviving underwater.

"Well, no time like the present, let's go." She told them. Nodding, Robin and Cyborg returned the way they had come. Starfire floated behind them, asking half a dozen questions per second. Beast Boy sped after them eagerly. Raven, however, intercepted Siren at the door.

"You know you don't have to do this, right?" Her voice carried no obvious emotion, but she was clearly concerned. That apprehension squirmed inside her, but outwardly Siren smiled.

"Oceans cover most of the world. I can't afford to be afraid of them, can I?" Her brave face did did not seem to fool the sorceress. "Besides, what's the point of wearing a diving suit most of my waking hours if I never dive?"

"And you don't think any bad memories might spring up?" Raven said skeptically. Soren's smile faltered. The sense of apprehension became harder to ignore.

"I can't promise they won't, but one can't fear echoes forever. That's supposed to be part of moving on, right?"

* * *

"Begin launch sequence," Robin's voice came clearly over Siren's headset. "Main power, online." She shifted nervously. It was hard not to be nervous. This felt strangely like coming home to an neglectful parent. The sea floor had been as familiar to her as a child as the sky was to most others. It had born witness to her first steps and moments of joy, but so many more moments had been far from joyous.

"Oxygen tanks at maximum." Starfire reported. Siren resisted the temptation to wring her hands. In truth, she had volunteered to go out in her diving suit despite objections from Robin and quieter but no less strenuous objections from Raven. She didn't have Beast Boy's advantages and of her own powers, well, fire would only generate steam bubbles for a few feet. Electricity would harmlessly dissipate into the ocean at best and electrocute her at worst. She wasn't entirely sure she wanted to try dematerializing and rematerializing amidst such pressure. Her lithe superhuman body and telekinesis was all she had, but Eleanor felt strongly that this was something she had to do.

"Defensive systems active." Raven's voice brought back their earlier conversation. Her worry had as much to do with their exchange of memories as any lingering aversion to the ocean. The sorceress worried that the experience had not left Siren unscathed either, that her memories had been destabilized somehow. She couldn't say how that would affect Siren, but deemed going into an environment almost sure to trigger old memories a bad idea. Siren couldn't entirely disagree.

"Twin Turbo Hydrojet Engine, purring like a kitten." Cyborg said proudly.

"And our secret weapon is ready to rock!" Beast Boy boasted from the seat in front of her. Unlike the others, Siren and Beast Boy shared their particular cockpit as it was the one that allowed them to exit the ship while underwater. His bravado brought made her quirk a smile and she touched her headset.

"Secret weapon babysitter here too,"

"What!?" Beast Boy twisted around in his seat and gaped at her. She just smiled with false sweetness.

"Someone has to keep you on task." Siren teased.

"I feel your pain," Cyborg told her through the comm.

"Come on guys!" The shapeshifter complained. He stuck out his tongue at Siren before sitting back in his chair.

"We could need both of you for this mission." Robin cut through the banter. "We have to find out what this Trident guy is planning. If it takes forty barrels of toxic waste, I doubt its environmentally friendly." The T-sub descended to the large oval entrance built under the tower for this exact purpose. "Titans, launch." Siren braced her hands against the sides of her cockpit as the submarine's engines engaged and they rocketed forth through the tunnel, out into the open ocean.

"What can these chemicals actually be used for?" Siren asked once she sat back in her seat.

"Nothing on record that I could find." Robin told her. "Some of it is industrial waste, some from medical and chemical laboratories, but its waste. Nothing obviously useful jumps out."

"Someone thinks its useful..." Cyborg put it in. Siren wanted to address that, but several loud bumps drew her attention. A large number of very disoriented looking fish drifted by overhead. She blinked.

"Did you just pilot through a school of fish?"

"Uh, yeah?"

"Oooh, they're wondrous!" Siren could see Starfire admiring the passing underwater near-roadkill in her bubble.

"If you think they're cool, wait 'til you see me out there kicking butt! First I'm going to go shark!" The shapeshifter began chomping his teeth in imitation of a shark's bite.

"Oh boy..." Siren shook her head and looked at Beast Boy with fond amusement. "And what will you do when the villain punches you in the nose?"

"The I'll go giant squid on them!"

"Hmm... I could really go for some calamari now that I think about it..."

"Dude!" Beast Boy recoiled from her. "Not cool!" Siren laughed.

"Sonar contact," Robin broke in. "Beast Boy, Siren, ready to go?" Beast Boy grinned ear to ear and unfastened his restraint belt.

"Dude, I was born ready!" Siren rolled her eyes and sighed, undoing her own belt. "Try not to be jealous." The shapeshifter remarked smugly.

"I'm all set, ready to take a dip." She donned her spherical helmet and listened for the subtle hiss as it sealed securely to the rest of her suit. Amongst the many advantages to her old suit, this one required no bulky oxygen tanks. Its oxygen recycling systems could sustain her for several hours if need be. Her and Beast Boy's seats began to descend with a whine of servo motors and they approached the airlock. Several seconds later, they were in the ocean.

Siren had expected the shock of the water's cold temperature, positively icy at this depth, so she was not stunned by it. It quickly faded thanks to her suit's temperature regulation. It never faded in the old suit, in truth nobody without a Big Sister's resilient physiology could survive in those things, cobbled together from scraps as they were. She was pulled from her thoughts by the sudden expansion of Beast Boy's form. A massive green whale swam through the water beside her.

"He just put on three hundred thousand pounds," Raven spoke dryly. "I am soooo jealous..." Her sarcasm brought a smile to Siren's face. For a time after that nobody said anything and she heard nothing save her own breathing. Before them the rocky ocean floor suddenly dropped off and their target came into view. The ship sat on the sea floor like some massive toy long ago broken and discarded. The crew, thankfully, had escaped so it was only this metal hulk that had received a burial at sea. Siren propelled herself through the water with superhuman grace and speed. When she drew close enough to read the ship's name on the side, _S.S. Vargas_, Robin's voice crackled through the silence.

"There's our ship, but where's the cargo?" Beast Boy took on the appearance of a green hammerhead shark. He entered the forsaken ruin. After a moment of hesitation, Eleanor followed him. Within the wreck, all was dark save for the sparse holes in the roof through which the T-sub's floodlights gleamed. Eleanor found herself trailing a hand along the nearest wall so she wouldn't lose track of it. The passing lights made the shadows dance. Her heart began to beat faster. Siren's limbs grew tense and it took an effort to control her breathing.

"If this Trident guy was bad enough to sink a whole ship, that cargo could be anywhere by now." Cyborg offered to the group at large.

"And if we want to know where, we have to search for clues." Siren's voice was more tense than she meant it to be. A dull ache had settled into her brow. Maybe it was the pressure. Maybe it was purely nerves. The comm was silent for a time. Seconds seemed to creep by in minutes. She had forgotten what this could feel like. It was the closest she had ever come to full sensory deprivation. The darkness of the wreck, unable to touch anything directly, and the silence shrouding everything. In Rapture, during the later days of her mother's reign, silence had been a cherished rarity. It was then that she could contact Father or the Little Sisters. Now... Now the quiet seemed to her a gulf filled with disquieting promise. Siren turned her head to look out one of the holes in the ship's hull to the brighter blue of the seemingly endless ocean. It was not so deep here as the place of her birth and sunlight filtered down clearly enough to give the surrounding sea a pleasant blue color. That brought her some comfort, but as she watched something began to shift. Even to her unusual eyesight, she barely caught it. Eleanor thought it was her imagination for a moment, but then the shifting resolved itself as small vague dark mass far in the distance. It was getting larger, closer...

"Eleanor," Raven broke Siren from her reverie and she shook her head to clear it. When she looked again she couldn't find the spot of darkness, her imagination after all then. Somehow that did not make her feel any better. "How are you doing?" Her tone was flat and unconcerned, but Eleanor knew better.

"Perfectly fine," She said with a cheer she did not feel. "Is there a reason I wouldn't be?"

"It's just the two of us on this channel," The sorceress assured her. "You can speak freely." That made Eleanor sigh.

"Raven... why are you trying so hard? I can handle myself!" There was silence at the other end of the line. Siren instantly felt the specter of guilt. She had not meant to snap. She swallowed "...I'm sorry. I didn't..."

"I... Suppose I only meant..." She struggled for the words. Siren abruptly realized that Raven felt guilty herself. Why, she wasn't sure. "I know that having the past dragged up isn't easy, that's all."

"I..."

"Siren! Beast Boy's spotted him off the starboard side, go!" Robin's voice abruptly cut through their private conversation. Siren desperately hoped he had just tracked what channel they were on rather than eavesdropping. _But enough of that._ She pushed her feelings and concerns to the back of her mind and propelled herself out a gap into the sea. Siren could see Beast Boy speeding away in his shark form after a vague slender figure in the distance. The T-sub was already in pursuit, twin turbines sending a billow of bubble up behind them. Eleanor self consciously realized she falling behind and began carving through the water with every once of superhuman strength her body could muster. For several moments she closed the distance between her and the others bit by bit. Then caught her eye, a blur of movement. She turned her head and there was a new figure swimming just behind the orange-red submarine, a figure holding a trident.

"Trident! He's behind you!" She cried out into her radio and at the same time altered her trajectory towards the scale skinned foe. He pointed the trident at the speeding submersible just as it began to arc away from him and its three tips began to glow. Abruptly, Siren realized she wouldn't make it in time. The submersible wasn't going to move fast enough. She did the only thing she could think to do. In a bright flash and a curious sucking sound where the water moved in to fill the space she had been, Eleanor was gone. Then she was in front of a very startled Trident and seized his weapon, wrestling it away from the sub. A bolt of white lightning fired from the end of the trident harmlessly into the sea above them. Siren clung to the trident, attempting to wrestle it away from the scaly villain, but Trident matched her strength. She heard him growl in anger at her.

"Siren, hold him, we're coming about. Raven, get ready to fire!" Robin ordered. Trident kicked at Siren's midriff, but she was able to twist away from most of the blow's force and brought her helmeted head forward in a headbutt. Trident reeled. His grip weakened. Eleanor snatched the weapon away from his grip. She twisted in the water, braced her foot against the haft and pulled. The trident snapped and she let the pieces sink down into the depths. Behind Trident she could see the T-sub coming around to face him. A blinding bolt of white lightning fired from somewhere below and struck the submersible with a flash of fire.

"Where'd that come from?!" Cyborg struggled to keep the vehicle level. Eleanor was utterly taken aback. Trident was here in front of her and she had broken his weapon!

"You cannot defeat perfection!" Bizarrely, she could hear him even through the water. Trident took advantage of her distraction and surged forward with a punch that sent her whole body spinning. The world spun between Trident, the T-sub, Beast Boy down below by the sea floor, the ocean stretching on and on.

"He is there!" Starfire's voice shouted in her ear. Siren began to slow her spin by stretching out her arms. Whenever Trident and the T-sub came into view on her rotation she saw blurs of white light hammering the retreating submersible.

"No, there!" Raven corrected. A green blur and a blue slender form sped by her in the water, chasing after the falling sub. Siren glimpsed an explosion coming from one of the twin engines.

"He can't be in three places at once!" Robin ground his teeth. Siren could hear alarms blaring in the background. She finally righted herself into a fighting posture and looked after her friends. "Aim for that-"

"The engine's fried," Cyborg reported. "We're going down!" The new blue clad figure had caught up to Trident and was grappling with him. In the form of a green squid, Beast Boy was chasing after the T-sub was was falling towards... A deep sea trench. Eleanor's heart began to hammer in her chest.

* * *

_Her stomach plunged in fear and dismay at the sight of the explosives filling the corridor before the lifeboat. Eleanor skidded to a stop and twisted around, reaching out to her Protector behind her. Delta charged along with great thunderous footsteps, but he was slow, too slow. The charges were detonating even as she began to teleport to safety. For a moment she found her gaze fixed on the glass side of the corridor, on that yawning abyssal trench below, thinking about how easily it could swallow them all up. How easily it could devour Father in its crushing pressures before she had a chance to save him..._

* * *

"No!" Siren surged through the water with her hand outstretched towards the T-sub, desperately attempting to take hold of it in her telekinetic grip. Against all the odds, despite the distance, the sheer size of it and only for an instant, she had it. Her emotionally charged hold was tenuous and Eleanor gasped at the strain. A pinpoint of aching pain sparked beneath her forehead. For a moment, the T-sub's descent slowed. Then her fragile grip broke and that pinpoint released in waves that crashed and reverberated inside her skull. One hand pressed against her helmet, forgetting that her head was encased in metal, and the world spun. This time it had nothing to do with her body's spatial orientation. "Aaah!" Siren squeezed her eyes shut and gritted her teeth against the throbbing pain.

"Siren!" Raven gasped through her helmet speakers. Her voice was shrill with surprise. The throbbing began to fade. Siren could only groan and lament the inability to rub her temples. She forced her eyes open and had to do a double take.

"I... Think we're alright team." Robin said, confounded. The T-sub was no longer sinking, it was being born along on the backs of a pair of large whales. Siren gawked at the suddenly charitable wildlife and nearly jumped right out her skin when something touched her arm. It was a tentacle, a massive green tentacle connected to an equally green squid. Beast Boy pointed with another tentacle and Siren got her first good look at the blue clad interloper, a lanky but muscular teen with a mane of dark hair streaming behind his head as he swam in the same direction as the whales carrying the T-sub.

"Okay, okay," She took steadying breaths. "Right, lets see what he wants then..."

* * *

The swimmer in the blue unitard led them into a cave in the side of a deep sea cliff, in which was a hollowed out grotto with breathable air enough space to safely dock the T-sub. As they approached the entrance, Siren felt a peculiar sensation in her mind, like fingertips sliding through her hair and brushing her scalp only it was deeper than that. The unsettling yet oddly sensual feeling almost made her pause, but instead she surged forward, past Beast Boy and past the blue swimmer. Strange as it was, the touch had carried with it a familiar impression. Raven had reached out to her somehow, she didn't even know the sorceress could do it, that meant... Well she didn't rightly know what it meant but she was quite eager to get to her friend and find out.

"What was that back there?" Raven was standing by the water, waiting for her as she broke the surface. She reached out a hand and helped Siren clamber out of the salt water. The grotto was spacious yet surprisingly well lit and smelled musty with brine. Glistening stalagmites and stalactites dotted the floor and ceiling. Eleanor waited until she had removed her helmet to respond to her friend.

"I'm not sure, but... You were right earlier, I did remember something, a flash."

"What was it?" The sorceress' tone had become heavy with some emotion Siren couldn't identify.

"My escape," She said simply. Siren had no desire to dwell any longer on that harrowing moment. Raven would know what she meant. "It was strange... Like I forced myself past a limit."

"You were very distressed, afraid."

"About that..." Eleanor lowered her voice. "What was that just now? In my mind, your... Touch?" Raven avoided her gaze and looked flustered, wringing her hands.

"An empathic link, it formed when your memories bled over into my mind. When you felt such a strong emotion," She touched the gem on her forehead. "I couldn't help but feel it too." Eleanor looked at her friend in shock.

"How long have you known?"

"...I noticed it a few days ago, about a day after you entered my mind." Raven's soft spoken words propelled Eleaner from surprise into shock and then to simmering indignation.

"Why didn't you tell me!?" Siren hissed. It was absurd to her, perhaps a betrayal even, that Raven had not told her about a connection between their minds.

"It will fade with time," Raven assured her. "I didn't want to..." She trailed off, either not knowing what to say or unsure how to say it. The way the sorceress continued to avoid her gaze made something dawn on Siren. Raven felt guilty, she blamed herself for Eleanor's resurgent memories and the link. Her features softened.

"Raven..." Before she had a chance to complete her thought, whatever it might have been, the sound of something large breaking the surface of the water interrupted. Looking behind her, she saw their blue clad rescuer emerge standing on the back of some sea creature. He was tall, taller even than herself and she was shorter only than Cyborg on the Titans, and had a lean toned build. Wet long black hair was slicked back against over his neck and his dark eyes observed the Titans without malice. He smiled and leapt onto dry land and the creature sank out of view.

"This is my place," He explained. "I told the whales to bring you here." Siren turned towards him reluctantly, postponing their conversation for a later date.

"How did you manage that?" Eleanor said without thinking, but blushed as she realized she was being rude. "Er, I mean, thank you."

"Telepathy," He said simply. "And it was no trouble."

"Hey!" All eyes went to the pool, where Beast Boy was standing, soaking wet and shaking a fish out of his boot. He was fuming. "I was there too ya know!"

"You stopped Trident from kabobbing us with that soured up shrimp fork?" Cyborg raised an eyebrow.

"Way to go!" Robin congratulated him with a smile. Beast Boy deflated and shifted uncomfortably.

"Well, I was gonna..." He said began awkwardly. Their rescuer walked up to them.

"I'm Aqualad," The water breathing youth introduced himself with easygoing confidence and composure. He took the scowling shapeshifter's hand and shook it amiably. "Sorry I didn't introduce myself earlier, we Atlanteans try to keep a low profile."

"Don't think anyone noticed you..." Beast Boy muttered bitterly. Siren wasn't paying attention. Her interest had been piqued by what Aqualad had said and for a moment she forgot all about her recent troubles.

"Wait, you come from Atlantis?" She asked him. Naturally she had heard of Atlantis. She had done her reading on the members of the Justice League and she knew about Aquaman, the supposed king of a sunken civilization believed to be a myth in her own time. She hardly believed it even then, but she found the prospect of another city beneath the too sea unsettling to dismiss. Aqualad nodded at her gravely.

"And so is Trident," He walked over to a small device sitting on a rock and touched it. Images sprung up into the air, Trident wreaking havoc in an undersea city reminiscent of Ancient Greece, his weapon raised triumphantly. "Trident is one of the worst criminals in Atlantis, with an ego to match. He believes he's perfect in every way, so he thinks can do whatever he wants."

"Any idea what he's planning to do with the stolen toxic waste?" Robin asked.

"Whatever it is, it'll be bad for both our worlds." His brow furrowed. "Recently he seems to have developed a new power, it's like he can be everywhere at once."

"So we saw..." Eleanor commented. With her thoughts drifting back to the battle, she glanced at Raven. Whatever emotional turmoil she had experienced before, the sorceress had schooled her expression into the image of dispassion. Eleanor couldn't help but worry. Aqualad's attention wasn't on either of them, but instead he focused on Robin.

"So long as we're after the same guy, maybe we could help each other out." Siren saw Beast Boy start at that, and as Aqualad extended his hand toward Robin he interposed himself between them.

"Hey! Woah, we're good! 'Got the whole Trident thing under control!" He blabbered somewhat desperately and began pushing the boy wonder in the opposite direction. "Besides, isn't there a school of minnows somewhere that needs your he- Ugh!" Abruptly, Cyborg grabbed both of them by the collar and pulled them over to the rest of the team for an impromptu team huddle. Siren found herself roped in before she knew what was happening.

"We are at the bottom of the ocean," Raven stated gravely with a pointed look at the shapeshifter.

"Our sub's Swiss cheese." Cyborg's voice carried a note of anger.

"Fixing it will take time," Siren said distractedly, looking at the submersible from the corner of her eye. It was quite battered and worrying cracks crisscrossed some of the transparent bubbles. It was only a matter of time though, she figured. She and Beast Boy could make supply runs to the surface if necessary.

"And we cannot breath water!" Starfire interjected, not that it needed to be said, but successfully underscoring the direness of the situation. Robin nodded and raised his hand to get Aqualad's attention.

"We'll take any help you can give us!"

* * *

While the sea life telepath introduced his diminutive fish-like friend Tram, Siren allowed her mind to wander. She mulled over thoughts of Atlantis. It was a strange idea, that Rapture was not the first undersea metropolis, but she wondered idly if the Atlanteans were not as ignorant as she had been. Had they known about that city of nightmares? If she had looked out a window at just the opportune moment, would she have seen a so very human face staring back at her out of the depths? There was no way to be sure, except maybe to ask. How could she do that without revealing too much? Her train of thought slowed to a halt when she spied Raven. If emotion truly echoed across this link between them, Raven was either truly untroubled or, more likely, clamping down on them. The sorceress's face was impassive as she watched the the others, but avoided Eleanor's gaze entirely. Siren took a breath and approached her.

"I know that you wouldn't keep the link from me out of malice." She said, maintaining a steady pitch. "And I don't expect you to tell me your every secret, but this is _my_ mind and _my_ emotions. I have a right to know." Finally Raven looked at her. Perhaps it was her imagination or a hint of intuition from the link, but Siren thought she saw a flicker of pain in the sorceress' violet eyes. Regret, maybe.

"I understand," The flicker was gone. She spoke with minimal emotion. "But I think _they_ need your help now." Siren followed her pointed finger to the edge of the pool. Aqualad and Beast Boy were grappling, pushing and shoving at one another like little boys fighting over a place in line, apparently arguing over who would be the one to go out and track Trident. She looked back to Raven, who offered Siren her helmet in one hand and held up her radio headset in the other. "I'll be in touch." Eleanor frowned and opened her mouth to object. This wasn't a conversation that could wait.

"Guys! Why don't you both track down Trident _together_?" Her attention was dragged back to the pool. Robin had pulled the Atlanteans and the shapeshifter apart and was speaking loudly to both of them. Siren gave the sorceress one more troubled look, but took the helmet and began walking toward the water's edge.

"I usually work alone." Aqualad was saying as she approached.

"Yeah, me too." Beast Boy crossed his arms.

"You do not! You're part of a team!" The Atlantean accused.

"And you hang out with Tram the fish boy! What's your point?!" The shapeshifter snapped right back. Siren sighed heavily at their bickering and performed a brief check of her suit. Everything seemed in working order.

"Hey! Arguing isn't going to get us any closer to stopping Trident, now get out there and search, both of you!" Robin broke in between them with a hint of anger. The shapeshifter and the Atlantean glared at each other for several moments more. Then they turned as one and dove into the water like a pair of synchronized swimmers, a pair of overly competitive thick headed swimmers anyway. Robin shook his head after them in exasperation. He turned to Siren as she stopped beside them.

"I know," She sighed before he had a chance to speak. "You want me to make sure they remember that it's Trident they're supposed to be fighting, not each other?" Her helmet slipped over her head and sealed with a hiss.

"Just stay on the lookout, and be careful." He told her, his voice muffled by her helmet, the internal speakers had yet to engage.

"Will do... and to believe I was being sarcastic when I made the babysitter comment..." She huffed and then, without ceremony, dove from the edge and reentered the deep.

* * *

"Checking in, any progress?" Raven's voice whispered through the speakers by her ear. Siren frowned. She had only been following Aqualad and Beast Boy, once again in the form of a giant squid, for several minutes. The hadn't even begun to properly search yet.

"Not really, is something wrong?" She asked.

"Robin's just getting antsy," The sorceress assured her. "There's not much he can do. He knows it and he doesn't like it."

"That's our Robin." Eleanor noted. "He's big on control..." She trailed off. There was a long pause on the other end.

"...I know you want to talk." Raven's tone was a mixture of reluctance and apprehension. She was biting at bait and knew it.

"I know you have secrets," Eleanor had not stopped thinking about this since entering the water. "We both have them, a few things we didn't share that night after I entered your mind."

"Everyone as a few secrets." The sorceress countered, but she spoke it more as an idle observation than an argument.

"Yes, some for very good reasons." Siren slowed her pace through the water as Aqualad and Beast Boy came to a stop. They appeared to be arguing, but that was only a guess. The conversation was entirely telepathic. "Some are more… selfish."

"You're dragging this out more than it has to be, Siren."

"Sorry," Siren said awkwardly. "What I mean is... Hang on, I think Beast Boy has something." Before her the green squid had become a green dolphin. Without a word she could understand, the shapeshifter sped off through the water with Aqualad in hot pursuit. Eleanor swam after them as best she could. Keeping up with the pair of them was taxing even for her, but thankfully they did not have to ge far. Soon they came to a stop when a group of dolphins began swimming up and around Beast Boy. She couldn't read dolphin expressions, but she would say the shapeshifter looked sheepish. Aqualad folded his arms and looked amused.

"Well?"

"Never mind," Siren sighed. The dolphins began to swim off with Aqualad and Beast Boy in pursuit. She followed after them. "A false alarm. Anyway, what I mean to say is that I understand if you didn't tell me because of selfish reasons. I'm guessing that's why you didn't tell me about the link... You thought I'd think less of you?"

"I... shouldn't have allowed the link to form in the first place." Raven spoke quietly. It sounded as if she were struggling with the words. A flutter of nervous energy skittered across her mind through the link. "And I thought you'd worry about the effect your emotions might have on me, so... I said nothing and hoped it would fade before anything happened that would make you notice… and then I didn't want you to know I was lying." For a brief moment, Raven's confused guilt and shame struck Eleanor like a clear note. It was the bald faced truth. Oddly, for Eleanor it felt like a weight had lifted. If Raven had claimed total selfishness, she did not know that their friendship would endure. If the sorceress had claimed only altruism, Siren would not have believed her. Perhaps that would have hurt more, the lie of it. Instead, she admitted to the complex mixture of guilt, shame, and concern that was so very human.

"It's alright," She said soothingly. "I don't blame you and you should be easier on yourself..." Even as she said those words, her brow furrowed. Something was off. It had nothing to do with Raven, but rather her two companions. They were just coming up to a ridge in the sea floor. Beast Boy had shot ahead of Aqualad, taking the form of a swordfish, and the Atlantean was slowing and reached out his arm is if trying to hold back the shapeshifter. Then Siren saw why. Beast Boy didn't until he smacked right into Trident's chest and bounced off, dazed.

"Trident!" Immediately she began to swim faster, desperately trying to close the distance.

"You see him?"

"Right in front of us," There was movement on the other end of the connection. Then Robin's voice came on.

"Siren, you see Trident?" Before she could reply, Aqualad slammed into the scaled villain and both tumbled over the ridge grappling. Beast Boy shifted into a great white shark and swam after them out of view.

"Beast Boy and Aqualad are going after him, I'm pursuing." With that she kicked through the water with all her strength and rocketed through the depths. When she reached the apex of the ridge, she came up short. Her eyes bugged out and her head swiveled back and forth between her friends' combatants. The sight below her was, well, impossible. "There are two of them..."

"Two of what?!" Robin asked loudly.

"Tridents! There are two Tridents! Maybe more! That's how he's able to be everywhere at once!" In the open below, Aqualad was grappling with the scaled villain. Behind a rocky outcrop, Beast Boy tussled with his own Trident. Neither could see the other. They may not even realize they were fighting separate combatants. So absorbed was she by the implications of the revelation that she did not notice the bolt of white lightning until a sharp hot pain lanced into her side and sent her spinning through the water with a yelp of surprise. When she righted herself and assured made sure the blast had done minimal damage to the suit, she saw yet a third Trident, yellow eyes gleaming with prideful rage, bearing down on her, his namesake weapon glowing for another discharge.

That was when something utterly unexpected occurred. A great black form, easily twice the mass of Trident, was suddenly slamming into him, knocking the Atlantean down into the rocks on the far side of the ridge from her fighting friends. Abruptly Siren realized that this was the shadow she had seen at a distance in the wreck of the _Vargas_. The form turned and stared at Eleanor through an all too familiar crimson visor.

"Theta..." She breathed in disbelief. He was much as she remembered. The armor was slightly different, better covering, likely water tight and most notably what appeared to be a motorized propeller strapped to his back, but it was the same imposing juggernaught she remembered. She could hear the whirring of it from where she stood. He was mobile, and she didn't want to think about her chances with only telekinesis at her disposal.

"What!?" Robin sounded utterly confused. Theta raised his drill arm towards her and the engine on his back began to rumble louder, revving up for a charge. Siren tensed, prepared to lunge out of the way. A bolt of white lightning shot up from the sea floor and struck Theta in the side. It did not send him spinning as it had Siren, but he twisted around to search for the offender. The third Trident stood below, firing another bolt of lightning at the juggernaut that sparked brightly off his shoulder. Eleanor felt rather than heard a low rumble through the water as Theta charged down like a torpedo towards the offender, throwing a cloud of dust and splintered rock up with his impact. She did not wait to see more.

"_Theta is here_," She hissed into her comm as she swam towards Beast Boy and Aqualad. They had evidently concluded their fight with the Trident duplicates and were swimming away towards what looked like a cave mouth. They had each been so focused they had not noticed the ruckus behind them.

"How!? Why?!" It was easy to tell that Robin was having a hard time containing his frustration at being stuck away from the action.

"No idea," Her tone remained hushed, as if worried Theta would hear her through the water. "But I'm not about to face him hamstrung. I'll try and get Beast boy and Aqualad to help." She followed the aquatic duo into a small trench on the sea floor. The rough walls were steep and dropped off sharply into darkness, but down was not their direction. Some distance along the trench it narrowed and then its top edges closed entirely with one another, the trench became a cave. When she found her friends, they had come to a stop at an intersection of several different tunnels. Aqualad was glaring at the shapeshifter and Beast Boy's squid tentacles were gesticulating angrily. Clearly they were having another telepathic argument.

"Oi!" She shouted as she came up to them, hoping to get their attention. They glanced at her, but were too absorbed in their conversation to do anything else. Grinding her teeth in frustration, Siren grabbed one of Beast Boy's tentacles with one hand and pointed out the cave entrance behind her. "There's more out there! Theta and there are atleast three Tridents!" She held three finger up in front of her helmet. The shapeshifter blinked at her uncomprehendingly and shook her off, returning Aqualad's glare. She smothered her anger as best she could but found herself grinding her teeth again.

"Siren? Did you...ind them?" Robin again, the signal was getting a bit choppy.

"For the lot of good it's done me!" She almost snapped. "They can't hear me and Aqualad's telepathy only works on fish. Fish! How bloody novel! I'm reduced to charades here!"

"Siren, calm down." Suddenly it was Raven's voice. With a shock of guilt, Siren remembered the link. Raven might be keeping her side of the link in check but Eleanor was probably broadcasting every fist clenching moment. She took a breath and attempted to steady her heartrate. "You can handle this, you've always been adaptable."

"Alright, alright." She breathed. Then abruptly her aquatic friends pointed at opposite tunnels. It took her a moment to see why. In each tunnel she caught just the tail end of a Trident escaping beyond. After a few more moments of intense glaring, the shapeshifter and the Atlantean set off... Into different tunnels. "Wha...Where are you off to now!?" Siren looked back and forth between them, uncertain who to follow. It was precisely then that the cave seemed to grow darker. Looking behind her, the light from the cave's mouth was partially obscured by a dark solid mass, rapidly growing closer and staring at her with a bloody red visor.

"Hell," She swore and picked a tunnel at random. "This is so messed up..."

"Sir...? Is Thet..." And just like that, the radio signal vanished entirely. Eleanor was suddenly very alone.

* * *

"Siren? Are you there?" Raven paused to listen, nothing but static. She looked at Robin and shook her head. "She's out of contact," The boy wonder frowned and she could sense his frustration. He turned towards the T-sub. Cyborg and Tram crouched over a damaged section. The electric glow of some sort of tool, perhaps a welding torch, flickered over the cavern walls. Starfire hovered nearby, trying to be useful.

"How close are you to done?" Robin called out.

"Should be ready in a few minutes," Cyborg didn't look up from his work. "Tram here really knows his tech!"

"Good, because we need to get out there yesterday," There wasn't a trace of humor in his voice. Raven couldn't agree more with the sentiment. She had not been entirely truthful when she said Siren was out of contact. She could still feel the former Little Sister through the empathic link. Right now she felt a nervous apprehension that fell just shy of fear coming at her in sporadic bursts. Eleanor was in trouble. She was without allies facing a foe she couldn't beat on her own even when all her powers were available. Raven didn't want to think about what would happen if they weren't fast enough.

* * *

It is difficult for most to truly imagine the true oppressiveness of true darkness. In this cave, well below the sun rich surface of the sea and deep within the sea floor itself, utter blackness ruled. It wrapped around her with suffocating totality as the last glimmer of light from the cave mouth faded. The only light Eleanor had was that which came from her porthole to light a meager portion of the space before her. But she was accustomed to darkness. Half her life there had been only the melancholic gloom of Rapture's exterior to light the half flooded corridors of the city. Darkness did not trouble her, but she knew well enough to fear the things that hid there. She flipped through her helmet's filters anxiously. They did her little good. The tunnel was winding and she could see only a short distance before or behind her.

"Raven? Robin?" She whispered into her comm with little hope of answer. She may as well be trying to get in touch with Aqualad's telepathy... and abruptly it occurred to her that this was not such a bad idea, though not with Aqualad. Eleanor took a breath and hunted within her own mind that thread of foreign feeling she knew belonged to Raven. It took some doing, but Raven was not the only one that knew how to keep her mental house in order. What she felt earlier from the sorceress told her what to look for, and there it was. It was bizarre, like a trickle of a water entering her thoughts from elsewhere. She was used to the feeling of foreign thoughts in her mind, but they were ghosts, long dead memories. This was new. This was raw living nervousness from someone for whom she cared.

Uncertainly, she tried feeding feelings of foreboding and urgency into the link. It was not the most efficient way to communicate, and Eleanor had to wonder whether distance was a factor. Her answer came as a breeze. It felt like one anyway, a light airy touch of reassurance brushing her mind soothingly. Raven knew she was in trouble and they were on their way. It was off-putting, but surprisingly comforting.

Then the illusion was shattered.

It began as a sound of whirring behind her. At first Eleanor was too absorbed by her own cerebral sensations to take notice. Then she heard the all too familiar sound of a revving drill. She twisted in the water and saw Theta bearing down on the former Little Sister, red visor gleaming with mindless malice. A low metallic groan rippled through the water as the metal clad juggernaught rocketed towards her, drill outstretched. Her reflexes saved her life. As Theta closed, she propelled herself upwards with a burst of adrenaline and a touch of telekinesis. The juggernaut's drill plowed into the cave wall, clouding the sea with dust and rock fragments as it tore up the stone. Siren dispersed the cloud with a burst of telekinetic power, and saw Theta ripping his drill from the wall. She reached out with her telekinesis, taking hold of the free floating fragments of rock.

And abruptly realized she could do more.

Her mental grip came with far less effort than ever before. The shards and fragments were nothing and they would not be enough. As Theta turned to face her, she reached out into the stone around her. There was a thunderous _crack_ as chunks of stone the size of her torso ripped themselves from the wall and hurtled towards her armored foe. He knocked aside the first but the second struck him right in the chest. Then Theta was lost in a haze of dust and fragments. For a moment, Eleanor dared to believe she had won. Then Theta, dark and looming as the specter of death, rocketed out of the haze straight at her like a freight train. She reached out once more with her telekinetic grasp, but he was too fast. She dodged the drill only for the vice grip of his free hand to close around her shoulder and carry her with him to slam painfully into the wall of the cave.

"Ah!" She cried. He pressed her back painfully into the rock and leveled his drill at her head. At this distance, the whirring noise of its spinning was deafening. He thrust the drill towards her and she threw up her hand reflexively, catching the drill tip in her palm, holding it back. There was an unholy screech as the drill fought metal, then a fiery agony ripped through her arm as the armor ruptured and a cloud of red billowed around the drill. The scream caught in her throat and became a unintelligible gag of pain and shock. The systems of her suit isolated the ruptured sectional most instantly. Then she vanished in a flash of violet light, reappearing on the opposite side of the tunnel.

Siren grimaced and held her forearm. The bleeding was already slowing. She gritted her teeth as flesh knitted itself over awkwardly fusing bone structures. She would have to rebreak and set them in order later so that it would heal properly. Until then she was effectively maimed. Eleanor didn't want to think about the damage the pressure difference would be causing her body right now if she were normal. She didn't have time to either. Theta whirled about to face her and she heard another low rumble vibrating into her very bones. It certainly did no favors to the pain in her arm. Just as he raised his drill for another charge a blinding flash of white light sparked brightly off his left shoulder. Siren looked to see a trio a dark yellow eyed figures speeding towards the juggernaught with glowing tridents aimed squarely at him. Suddenly a fourth figure was looming over her, scaled features glaring disdainfully.

"I am Trident! I am perfection!" He announced as he pointed his namesakes weapon at her.

"So I've heard," She muttered, and with a thought dragged the villain's trident away from his hands with telekinesis. He clung to it with greater tenacity than she expected and was unceremoniously bashed against the cave wall. While he was stunned, Siren swam past him further into the tunnel, there appeared to be a light ahead. A glance behind her revealed that she had little time before Theta finished dealing with the Trident copies. The tunnel emptied into a small cavern, and ubove the dance of artificial lighting on the water's surface. Eleanor realized her best chance was above water, where she would have her other powers available, and sped to the surface with such desperate speed that she emerged from the water like a shot from a cannon. She landed awkwardly in a roll and came to her feet unsteadily.

"Siren!" Eleanor blinked in surprise to see Beast Boy waving her over from the other side of the cavern. "We've figured out Trident's power, he's made copies of himself!"

"That's what I was trying to tell you!" She snapped in exasperation, and partly because of the lingering pain in her hand. "There are at least seven!"

"Guess again," Aqualad said without humor. He pointed straight up at the cave ceiling. If Eleanor had been keeping a count of all the things that went wrong today, she would have stopped bothering when she looked up. The cavernous ceiling was entirely covered with fleshy transparent orange growths, eggs dangling and each containing a full grown Trident curled in a fetal position. "Try thousands,"

"Oh my god..." Eleanor breathed, staring wide eyed at the ceiling. "That's..."

"An army?" A great multitude of identical voices said at once. Dozens of Tridents emerged from the shadowy recesses of the cavern, each sneering their fishlike faces in precisely the same way. Some held tridents, some merely clenched their fists, but all charged as one towards the interlopers. Siren found herself surrounded. She summoned fire to her undamaged hand and struck the first Trident to come at her square in the chest. From there it devolved into a melee, her punches and kicks with the occasional burst of lightning or fire barely holding them at bay.

Finally, one of them managed to get in close with a trident and struck at her. The blow glanced off her armor and she lashed out instinctively. It was only after a bolt of sharp pain lanced up her arm that she realized it was the injured one. Trident stumbled back, her blood splattered on his face. He straightened himself and glowered at her with a snarl. She couldn't tell if the blood on his teeth was hers or his. He started towards her again and suddenly stopped. A look of bewilderment came over his face, then his eyes bulged dramatically as if in pain. He collapsed, clutching his chest and shaking silently as if in a seizure. Siren and the other Tridents around them paused to stare dumbfounded. Then the shaking stopped and he was still, terribly still.

Dead. Had her blood done that?

Unfortunately her mingled horror and shock distracted her from her surroundings. One Trident launched a bolt of white lightning from his weapon that hit her straight in the chest, lifting her right off her feet to fly halfway across the cavern and slam her back into some sort of console.

"Umph!" Siren grunted as she fell to the ground. Two accompanying crashes against the console told her that Aqualad and Beast Boy had fared no better. There were simply too many of them. She forced herself to her feet and realized the console she had hit appeared to be at the root of the fleshy network of orange growths, around its base were what appeared to be the missing canisters of toxic waste. "Well," She rubbed the back of her head. "At least now we know what he was doing with the toxic waste."

"My brilliant plan is already a success." One of the Tridents sneered.

"If one of me was perfect..."

"Why not make more?" Said two others.

"You can never have too much of a good thing." A fourth added.

"Once my army conquers Atlantis..."

"I will invade the surface world!" Two more gloated gleefully. Siren, Beast Boy and Aqualad glanced at each other. This odd communal speech was getting strange, Beast Boy's brow was furrowing. He was forming an idea.

"All the world will bow down before me!" Another Trident continued.

"AND PRAISE MY PERFECTION!" All the Tridents cheered in unison.

"Any bright ideas?" Aqualad whispered to the two Titans. Siren had no answer for him, her mind was still stuck on what had happened to the Trident she had struck. She couldn't think of any way to use that to her advantage at the moment, but Beast Boy piped up.

"Just one, try to keep up." He turned to address the assembled Tridents. "So if you're all perfect, which one of you is the best?"

"I am!" They all said instantly, then looked at each other in confusion.

"That can't be," Siren said, catching on. "Surely one of you is better than the others."

"The original maybe?" Aqualad put in. A murmur went through the scaled Atlantean clones. Then one of them towards the rear waved his trident in the air.

"I am the original, I am the best!"

"You are not the original!" Another shouted back.

"I am!" Several insisted at once. One Trident growled, his weapon glowing with a charged bolt.

"Nonsense, you inferior fools! I am perfection! I am Trident!" The Tridents around him quickly turned and struck. The army of clones quickly devolved into a free for all, all turning on each other and claim their perfection. Beast Boy and Aqualad cringed at the brutality with which the clones beat each other. Siren just blink.

"How about that? Much easier than I thought it would be," She commented as the last two Tridents beat each other into unconsciousness. Various clones groaned from where they lay on the floor in various states of dazed pain.

"Great idea," Aqualad complimented the shapeshifter.

"Kinda got it from you," Beast Boy said with a sheepish note. "Now let's stop those clones from hatching!"

"Hatching? What're you..." Siren's sentence trailed off as she laid eyes on the screen of the console she had crashed into. It read:

_Hatching Sequence_

_00:00:02_

"Oh dear..." Was all she had time to say before the console began beeping frantically.

_Hatching Sequence_

_BEGIN_

"Too late!" Aqualad said and the trio looked to the ceiling. A sound of keening growls resounded from above. The Tridents in the egg pods were squirming and ripping their way free from their translucent membrane prisons. One by one they began to drop down from the ceiling and in moments they were surrounded all over again.

"You've got to be bloody kidding me!" Eleanor all but screamed. Then a peculiar sense of reassurance entered her mind. It took her a moment, but she recognized it as Raven. She could guess what it meant, she prayed she was right. "We have to run, now! The team will be waiting waiting for us outside!" Her two companions gave her looks of bewilderment.

"What? How do you know that?!" The shapeshifter looked back at her over his shoulder.

"Just trust-" She cut herself off when she heard the sound of a drill spinning. Eleanor looked to see Theta clambering out of the pool she had originally entered from, his red gaze set on the former Little Sister. Her stomach dropped. "Just go, now!" They needed no further urging. Beast Boy took the form of a hippopotamus and charged through the newly hatched Tridents, knocking them aside as he went. Aqualad and Siren followed in the path he cleared with all the speed their superhuman bodies would allow.

They leapt into the closest pool and swam with all their might. Siren found herself using telekinesis to speed her way through the water. Looking over her shoulder, she saw the Trident clones speeding after them. Behind them, she thought she could make out a red light growing steadily closer through the shadows. They could not allow the Tridents or Theta to escape if it was in their power to stop it.

"Raven, Robin, anybody! Can you hear me!" She spoke into her helmet.

"Siren!" Starfire gushed over the comm. "Thank goodness you are alright!"

"Siren?" Robin this time. "Where are you?"

"Escaping, we need to find a way to block the entrance!" The light of the exit was getting closer now, in a matter seconds they would be free. In a few seconds more, their pursuers would be too.

"We're way ahead of you." Raven said. Suddenly the light of the surface was obscured by the silhouette of the T-sub descending into view. Siren's heart leapt. Aqualad and Beast Boy shot out ahead of her. She emerged and came to a stop some distance away, turning around to watch the entrance as the T-sub's seismic blasters fired into it with a water muted boom. Stone collapsed and the exit was buried in a mound of rubble.

"Yes!" Robin whooped.

"Victory!" Siren could see Starfire holding two fingers up in a 'V' through the transparent canopy.

"Cool," Raven remarked, impressed in a rare moment.

"Booyah!" Cyborg fist pumped. "Seismic blasters worked like a charm! Nice repair work Tram!" The unintelligible but obviously excited babbling of Aqualad's friend came over the comm. Siren found herself smiling.

"Great job everyone, great job."

* * *

"So... How about your first time seeing a sunrise from the surface?"

"That would be..." Aqualad rubbed his chin in thought. "The Pillars of Hercules, uh, you'd call it the Strait of Gibraltar. I remember it was spring, it was incredible." He shook his head with a laugh. "You know, nobody ever asks me about these things." After the mission, the team had asked Aqualad to spend some time in the tower with them. Right now, it was just him and Siren in the living room sitting on the couch, hitting it off much better than she had expected.

"Oh? Why's that?" She asked.

"Well, most people ask me things like what movies I saw first or what I think of surface culture." Aqualad shrugged. "I guess they just don't think to ask about the little things."

"The things most people take for granted." She nodded in agreement. "I hear you, umm, I guess I just like to keep the simple things in mind. Most people see their first sunset before they were old enough to appreciate it. Seeing it when you're older is... Must be breathtaking." She finished with an awkward smile.

"I understand." He nodded, then he seemed to remember something. "By the way, that area of the Atlantic you asked me about earlier, west of Iceland?" Eleanor's mood darkened, but she thought she did an admirable job not letting it show.

"What about it?" She asked pleasantly.

"A large part of that area has been taboo to Atlanteans for as long as anybody can remember." He explained. "I don't know much, but old stories say something about a 'Crimson Scourge'." The Atlantean shrugged, apparently missing the way Eleanor stiffened at the name. "Whatever that is, nobody goes there. Why do you ask?"

"Oh, I went diving around there once." Eleanor forced herself to smile. "Not very deep, I was just wondering if I missed any Atlanteans while I was there."

"Well, I doubt it." Aqualad looked out the window. "Anyway, I think we should be going down. Robin said he had something for me before I left." She stood from the couch.

"Alright, let's not keep them waiting."

* * *

It was later that night, hours after Aqualad had departed, that Raven came to Eleanor's room. She found the former Little Sister in her room. She was sitting at her desk, evidently absorbed in her own thoughts. Her helmet was on the desk and her hair was a matted mess. She hardly twitched when Raven opened the door.

"Siren," The sorceress said quietly but clearly. Eleanor started slightly and turned around to face Raven.

"Oh! Sorry I didn't notice you come in, I have a few things on my mind." She offered an embarrassed smile. Raven took a breath and said what needed saying.

"I'm sorry," She began. "I should have told you about the link, and I shouldn't have let my emotions cloud my judgement on this." Siren tilted her head at her.

"Didn't you already say that?"

"I needed to do it in person." Raven shook her head. "I should have more control than this, it's my fault in more ways than one."

"My, you really have this guilt thing down pat."

"What?" Raven blinked. Eleanor sighed and stood. She turned to face her friend fully.

"Raven, I forgave you before the mission was even over. I understand why you did it and I don't blame you anymore, so stop beating yourself up or you'll only make the situation harder for yourself. How long will this link last?"

"...A few days more, maybe a week." Raven told her. Siren nodded.

"Great, so just hold off the self flagellation for another week and then we can put this all behind us."

"You're really alright with this?" The sorceress stood awkwardly in the door, unsure if she should pursue the matter further. Siren sat down and sighed.

"Yes, I am, so how about we meet in the living room in five minutes and watch movies? Beast Boy still wants to show me this _Star Wars_ thing." She smiled at her friend, but Raven could detect a slight strain to it. She took the hint.

"You know, if you want a moment to gather your thoughts, you can just ask." She commented with a note of good humor.

"I don't mean..." Siren protested weakly.

"I know, see you in five." She waved off the former Little Sister's protest with an air of understanding and disappeared through the door. When the door slid shut, Eleanor sat back in her chair and allowed her head to loll back so that she stared at the ceiling. She closed her eyes and sighed. After a few moments Eleanor sat up and removed a small item from her desk, a bit smaller than a TV remote. She held the digital audio recorder in front of her and presses a button on the side.

"So... Audio diaries... That's not a habit I thought I'd be picking back up." In her mother's captivity, the diaries had been her way of voicing her fears and exulting in her triumphs in aiding her father. It was not so different now, only the captivity was a secrecy of her own devising, a necessity of her life. There were fewer secret triumphs and more secret worries now too. "I believe what Aqualad told me about Rapture, it explains why the Atlanteans never took notice of the massive construction effort it took to build a city. I wonder if it was luck or rather some horribly ironic twist of fate that the city was built on forbidden ground to the Atlanteans." She paused and bit her lip before she continued.

"And then there's ADAM. One of Trident's clones died from exposure to it in moments. Aqualad mentioned a 'Crimson Scourge'. It makes sense that the Atlanteans might forbid a region crawling with creatures that produce such a lethal toxin to them, but how did it become so deadly? They're quite similar to humans, considering that they're an offshoot, but ADAM has never been a poison except of the mind and slow genetic degradation." Eleanor took a breath, she was about to leap into the realm of speculation.

"I believe the answer may lie in their origins. Tradition says Atlantis sunk in a day. Even assuming it was really more like months or years, it's far too short a period for them to adapt to their new environment through evolution. Evolution acts on a macro scale, not a micro scale. Sorcery is thought to be the catalyst for the swift change, but what if it was only a stabilizer for ADAM. Absurd as it sounds, it would make Atlaneans the original splicers. If sorcery stabilized the process and rendered ADAM poisonous to them as a side effect, it does fit." She sighed an rubbed her temples. "...And I can't prove a bit of it. All I know for sure is that they probably aren't in any danger of stumbling on Rapture. I'll take what I can get. Then there's what happened with my telekinesis." She held her hand in front of her face. "If Adam allows my body to adapt to extreme circumstances, could the same be said of my plasmids? Am _I_ evolving on a micro scale?"

* * *

"Useless oaf..." Ryan Lutwidge muttered under his breath. He sat at a desk in the facility Slade had provided for his experiments. His mask lay discarded on the table and he glared at Theta out of the corner of his eye. The juggernaught stood tall in the corner, utterly passive, his armor covered in dents, dings, and scorch marks. "I ordered you to investigate what the disappearing chemicals were being used for," He grumbled. "I _specifically_ ordered you not to attack the Titans. I _specifically_ told you to gather samples and return, but no! In the end you had to dig your way out of a mountain!"

Lutwidge sighed heavily and returned his attention to the work in front of him. A severed scaly hand and forearm sat in a glass case in front of him. In a jar beside it was a sample of a peculiar orange fleshy substance.

"I really must find a way to counter this fixation on Siren you've developed, but in the meantime..." He picked up the jar of orange material and held it in front of his face. "Cloning... That would do wonders for my supply problems if I can reverse engineer it. We'll see what comes..."

* * *

**Author's Note: As far as C-list Titan villains go, I've always had a soft spot for Trident. What can I say, I find him amusing. "Bow before my perfection, inferior fools!" And all that :D**

**Anyway, I know this took me far longer than normal, but obligations have a way of keeping one distracted.**

**I wanted to do 'Deep Six', in part as an excuse to bring up the ideas I've had regarding Atlantis and Bioshock and in part because it just seemed silly not to ever have Eleanor use the actual diving suit functions of her diving suit. Part of the reason it took so long was because it originally was little more than a slight rescripting of the original episode. Then I started adding things like Theta's presence, the empathic link, Eleanor's evolution. It took a little bit of reworking.**

**As you've probably already realized, I'm skipping some episodes. Originally I was going to skip 'Switched', but I've been rethinking that lately. Good thing episode order is fairly unimportant save for a few main plot centric episodes. I don't plan on doing Mad Mod or Car Trouble at this time, season 2 is largely uncertain, but I want to work in a lot more original episodes with a somewhat more cohesive plot arc.**

**As usual, Reviews are appreciated**


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